Today ecologist Susan Harrison features photos of everybody’s favorite sea mammal: sea otters! And for the ornithophiles, we also have some birds. The narrative is indented, and you can click on the photos to enlarge them.
Sea Otters & Others in Elkhorn Slough
Among the happier environmental news stories is the recovery of the Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) along parts of the West Coast after near-extinction from overhunting. Sea Otters are well-known as “keystone predators” in kelp forests, where their avid devouring of sea urchins ends up maintaining the kelp beds and their abundant fish and invertebrates.
In Elkhorn Slough, an estuary on Monterey Bay, Sea Otters have also resumed being keystone species in coastal salt marshes. Here, according to recent findings, otters maintain the all-important eelgrass beds by consuming crabs that burrow and destabilize the banks.
(Elkhorn Slough is itself quite the environmental success story, as there few coastal marshlands in California as large or as well-protected.)
On an electric catamaran tour of Elkhorn Slough we were amazed at all the Sea Otters. The guide told us there are about 150 otters in the slough, and I joked that we must have seen all of them. The otters float saucily on their backs, gobbling seafood and grooming their marvelous fur with its 1 million hairs per square inch (about as many hairs as an entire d*g).
The weather during our trip was wet and wintry, and many of these photos were taken in a light rain.
Sea Otters:
An unrelated surprise was when our catamaran passed the Western Flyer, on which John Steinbeck and Capt. Ed Ricketts made their legendary trip to the Sea of Cortez in 1940. The boat then endured a long career in the fishing industry, sank twice, and was ‘rediscovered’ in terrible shape in a Washington seaport by a Steinbeck fan. It’s now been lovingly restored to its original 1937 condition.
Western Flyer:
Moss Landing, at the mouth of Elkhorn Slough, with a storm approaching:
Double-Crested Cormorants (Nannopterum auritum):
Forster’s Terns (Sterna forsteri):
Common Loon (Gavia immer):
Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus):
Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) with Red-Throated Loon (Gavia stellata):
Brown Pelicans:
Ahhh – I needed that.
Very cool about the Western Flyer, too. Thx!
I’m so glad that the sea otters are recovering in California. They are quite rare in Washington, but are reportedly making a comeback: https://www.mmc.gov/priority-topics/species-of-concern/northern-sea-otters/.
Thank you for sharing. Have always loved the sea otters. Always wondered how fur could keep you dry in the water, well a million hairs per square inch, what an interesting adaption to their cold sea water environment.
After seeing these photos I think I need to plan a trip to Monterey in the near future.
Thanks for the lovely pictures and commentary. I fondly remember Elkhorn Slough from a year-long sabbatical (in 1993) I took at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, on the shores of Monterey Bay. The Sea Otters there are adorable. [I think your Horned Grebe is a Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis)].
Thanks for the great photos and commentary. What a wonderful spot!
Note: I think the grebe is a Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) rather than a Horned Grebe. Check out the bill length and shape.
Agree on the Grebe (agrebe?).
So go file a Griebance! 😸
But seriously, thanks for catching my mistake.
🙂
Great photos. Love the story about the Western Flyer. Good news! I loved The Log from the Sea of Cortez as a young man. Re-reading it recently I didn’t like it so well; but it’s a classic travel book and everyone should read it.
Slightly to the north of Monterey, surfers in Santa Cruz were being attacked by an aggressive sea otter last summer, per this article from the [San Jose] Mercury News:
Wanted: Authorities on the lookout for adorable surfboard-hijacking sea otter menacing Santa Cruz surfers
Wildlife experts trying to capture aggressive critter known as Otter 841
Photo caption:
Local officials call this female sea otter 841, raised in captivity, the otter has been climbing aboard and commandeering surfer’s boards as they wait for waves at various Santa Cruz beaches.
By John Woolfolk | jwoolfolk@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: July 12, 2023 at 3:45 p.m. | UPDATED: July 20, 2023 at 4:08 a.m.
Surfers, y’otter watch out.
A sea otter with a mean streak has been aggressively hijacking surfboards in the Santa Cruz area, authorities warn, and they’re scrambling to capture it before things get ugly.
That’s right, a sea otter — the impossibly cute, playful, beagle-sized fur-balls once hunted to near extinction for their luxuriously thick pelts that frolic in the water to the delight of millions of aquarium visitors a year.
It turns out these wild animals can be, well, wild. They also have sharp teeth and a bite force said to equal that of a 600-pound black bear, all to gnaw through the tough shells of the crabs and sea urchins they eat.
“While there have been no confirmed reports of injury, due to the highly unusual behavior of this otter, kayakers, surfers, and others recreating in the area should not approach the otter or encourage the otter’s interactions,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a straight-faced statement Wednesday.
[…]
URL for the above story:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/07/12/wanted-authorities-on-the-lookout-for-adorable-surfboard-hijacking-sea-otter-menacing-santa-cruz-surfers/
URL for follow-up story published a week later:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/07/19/authorities-weigh-options-as-surfboard-hopping-sea-otter-gives-them-the-slip/
Lovely photos! I’m overdue for a visit to Elkhorn Slough. Sea Otter lovers should also visit Morro Bay, on the central Californian coast. I stopped there a couple years ago and walked along the waterfront, hoping to see at least one otter. I must have seen around 10, including a mother and pup. The otters love how sheltered the bay is and are happy to hang out there.
Great to hear about the otters’ recovery. Beautiful mammals. I didn’t know how beneficial they are to their endemic ecology.
I loved how all the cormorants are staring at the same thing (seemingly) also how every post is occupied by a Forster’s Tern.
Great photos, all- loved the restored boat as well.
Thanks for great photos, Susan. I grew up on the Monterey Peninsula and it’s nice to see pictures of my old stomping grounds. The otters were doing just fine when I last lived there. Always battles, though, between those worried about abalone, otters, kelp overgrowth, you name it. Love the shot of Moss Landing with the storm coming in. Lovely.
These are wonderful to see, thanks so much. Those Terns are a real kick!!