Op-Ed: Send in the sea otters to help save California’s North Coast
3 years, 5 months ago

Op-Ed: Send in the sea otters to help save California’s North Coast

LA Times  

Sea otters eat up to a quarter of their body weight each day in abalone, crab, octopus — and the purple urchins that are laying waste to California’s kelp forests. One possible remedy has a satisfying twist — return the sea otter, the keystone kelp forest predator, to its historical range along the North Coast. Since the sea star die-off, the quarter-sized purple urchins have run amok, especially off the Sonoma and Mendocino coast, devouring kelp and replacing the complex near-shore kelp forest habitat with “urchin barrens” — a seabed carpeted with pastel pin cushions. Studies in Monterey Bay show that even though otters don’t clear the barrens, they keep proliferating purple urchins in check wherever kelp survives.

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History of this topic

Opinion: Is the restoration of California’s cutest keystone species worth it?
10 months, 3 weeks ago

Opinion: Is the restoration of California’s cutest keystone species worth it?

LA Times  

Hundreds of thousands of sea otters filled the coastal waters of the north Pacific Rim, from Baja to Japan, before they were hunted almost to extinction. Fish and Wildlife Service last year to get public input on, as the invitation put it, the “potential reintroduction of sea otters to their historic range,” including Oregon and Northern California, a decision that …

Sea otters are making a comeback in California — and they're curbing erosion
11 months ago

Sea otters are making a comeback in California — and they're curbing erosion

NPR  

Sea otters are making a comeback in California — and they're curbing erosion For decades, the number of California sea otters cratered. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: For decades, the number of California sea otters cratered, but since the 1980s, they've made a stunning comeback, a return that researchers now say helped restore their coastal habitat. DANIEL: Despite sea level rise and …

Hungry sea otters help to save California's marshlands from erosion
11 months, 1 week ago

Hungry sea otters help to save California's marshlands from erosion

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The return of sea otters and their voracious appetites has helped rescue a section of California marshland, a new study shows. Researchers found that the return of the crab-eating sea otters to a tidal estuary near Monterey, California, helped curb erosion. AP AUDIO: Hungry sea otters are helping save California’s marshlands from erosion. For the new study, researchers …

Hungry sea otters are helping save California's marshlands from erosion
11 months, 1 week ago

Hungry sea otters are helping save California's marshlands from erosion

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The return of sea otters …

Stewards of the kelp forests: New research reveals how sea otters dramatically influence the climate
11 months, 2 weeks ago

Stewards of the kelp forests: New research reveals how sea otters dramatically influence the climate

Salon  

With their roly-poly bodies, child-like eyes, long whiskers and tiny padded paws, otters are some of the most charismatic animals in nature. "We found similar trends among the Channel Islands with kelp canopy gains along islands where sea otters are observed or recovering balancing dramatic losses among all others." A recent study in the journal PLOS Climate, led by researchers …

Editorial: Humanity almost killed off California’s sea otters. It’s time to help them again
1 year, 3 months ago

Editorial: Humanity almost killed off California’s sea otters. It’s time to help them again

LA Times  

California’s sea otters were once hunted to the brink of extinction. The agency’s finding against delisting was based on the animals’ exposure to harmful pathogens, habitat loss and other threats that are being exacerbated by climate change and will “most likely reduce the ability of the species to sustain itself in the future.” It’s right for wildlife officials to be …

Sea otters were hunted to near-extinction. Can they be reintroduced to former habitat?
2 years, 5 months ago

Sea otters were hunted to near-extinction. Can they be reintroduced to former habitat?

LA Times  

Federal wildlife officials recently completed a feasibility study for reintroducing sea otters to their former habitats in Northern California and Oregon. Fish and Wildlife Service recently completed a feasibility study for reintroducing the otters to their former habitats, which would serve two purposes: restoration of the species and “restoration of ecosystem function.” The plan would involve introducing a mix of …

The Cutest Way to Fight Climate Change? Send in the Otters
3 years, 2 months ago

The Cutest Way to Fight Climate Change? Send in the Otters

Wired  

Off the coast of California lies an underwater forest of giant kelp, a kind of seaweed that grows to 100 feet tall at the rate of a foot a day. “As a general rule, kelp forests are much more productive than most terrestrial forests, in that they're churning through carbon much more quickly.” But since the 18th century, California's kelp …

How sea otters can fight climate change
3 years, 3 months ago

How sea otters can fight climate change

BBC  

How sea otters can fight climate change Getty Images The sea otter has an outsized effect on its ecosystem, helping it to absorb more carbon from the atmosphere Sea otters were hunted to the brink in the 19th Century fur trade, but their numbers have been slowly recovering since. Sea otters help ecosystems capture carbon from the atmosphere and store …

In Hotter Climate, 'Zombie' Urchins Are Winning And Kelp Forests Are Losing
3 years, 9 months ago

In Hotter Climate, 'Zombie' Urchins Are Winning And Kelp Forests Are Losing

NPR  

In Hotter Climate, 'Zombie' Urchins Are Winning And Kelp Forests Are Losing Enlarge this image toggle caption Steve Lonhart/NOAA MBNMS Steve Lonhart/NOAA MBNMS They're purple, spiky and voracious, and just off the West Coast, there are more of them than you can count. "They're kind of like zombies," says Morgan Murphy-Cannella, kelp restoration coordinator with Reef Check California, a group …

The sea otter rescue plan that worked too well
4 years, 4 months ago

The sea otter rescue plan that worked too well

BBC  

The sea otter rescue plan that worked too well Getty Images Sea otters were once all but wiped out in Canada's British Columbia, but now their numbers are so many that they are causing problems for First Nations Sea otters were locally extinct in British Columbian waters in Canada, until a plane containing a romp of otters arrived and set …

These sea otters adopt orphaned pups and raise them to be wild
5 years, 3 months ago

These sea otters adopt orphaned pups and raise them to be wild

CNN  

Monterey, California CNN — Rosa and Selka get lots of attention in their starring roles at the public daily feedings at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, especially during Sea Otter Awareness Week. “The first animals that we worked with were pups that had stranded, and the idea was that we would be able to populate the exhibit here at the aquarium …

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