Sea Otter Awareness Week: The vital role these animals play in marine ecosystems

It’s Sea Otter Awareness Week, which has been recognized for more than two decades. It started as a way to inform people about the vital role these animals play in coastal marine ecosystems.

There are around 3,000 southern sea otters from Half Moon Bay to Santa Barbara, according to Sea Otter Savvy.

The species used to cover a wider range from the entire California coast up to Oregon where the southern otters merged with the northern otters, however, Sea Otter Savvy reports fur hunting during the 19 ^th century drove the animals to near extinction.

“There’s a lot of interesting habitat history,” said John E. Hunter, Southern California resident.

According to Sea Otter Savvy, there are more than 55 sea otters than can be found in the Morro Bay harbor. As top predators of kelp eating species, without sea otters, kelp forests would be greatly reduced.

“They have some nice expressions that I never knew. This is the first time I’ve really seen them, besides in the zoo, in their wild environment or habitat,” Hunter said.

The southern sea otter population has been considered a threatened species for nearly half a century.

According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife, that’s due to climate change which increases exposure to harmful algae blooms, an increase in shark bites after losses in kelp canopy cover, and limited range due to a decrease in their food availability from ocean acidification.

“We don’t really know the difference between sea lions and sea otters and all these different sea things because we don’t have the sea. We only have lakes in Switzerland,” said Daniel Staehli, Switzerland resident.

Daniel Staehli is visiting California with his family and made a stop in Morro Bay to check out the sea otters.

“Funny how they are laying in the water and how they move. They seem to be sleeping while they are swimming,” said Staehli.

Some people enjoy watching the raft, or groups of sea otters floating in the harbor with their pups.

“They are very fun and amusing to watch,” Hunter said.

Southern sea otters in California were federally listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1977.