Sea Otter Pops Up in Oregon Waters, Where They Have Been Extinct

A sea otter sighting has been confirmed in Oregon near Depoe Bay. There have been no confirmed sightings of the creature in Oregon waters since 1906. Morris Grover spotted the animal but did not want to tell anyone until he sent photos of it to biologists and they told him what he photographed. They identified it as a sea otter. (Many river otters there have been mistaken for sea otters).

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Sea otters have been extinct in Oregon for just over 100 years. Overtrapping eliminated them from the environment. The Fur Treaty of 1911 banned trapping of sea otters in the United States and several other countries but by then it was too late for some populations. Mr. Grover was very excited about the discovery: “We’re ecstatic, these are supposed to be extinct here.”

The otter appearing in Oregon is from California or Washington. Because the Oregon otter population was wiped out, sea urchins in Oregon waters have multiplied dramatically. When sea otters are present they eat the urchins and keep their numbers in control. If sea urchin populations are kept in check, then kelp beds thrive, which is good for the whole marine environment. There is hope the otter will become a permanent resident and perhaps someday a whole new population might emerge. A non-profit project to restore otters to the Oregon coastal waters, and thereby rejuvenate the kelp beds was launched in 2000.

Image Credit: Ed Bowlby, NOAA research co-ordinator, WikiCommons Public Domain

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