Otterly Kelpless
 CK:
Well, we know that the otter population has a lot of disease. It's not
a healthy population and there are a lot of concerns as far as their recovery.
The question is, can we do anything about it? I mean, I don't think you
can ask people to get rid of their cats. We know the parasite in cats
is a major problem in the AIDS population, but people still keep their
cats.
CD: What
about throwing away cat litter instead of flushing it down the toilet.
CK: If we
knew that was a cause, yes, we'd recommend that. But we don’t know
if that's a cause.
CD: One problem
also has got to be pressure because there are so many people in this area
now. Especially where things like runoff are concerned. You take out the
wetlands, you make concrete channels out of creeks, you pave everything,
and a lot more nasty stuff ends up in the ocean.
CK: Definitely.
Ideally, we'd like to be able to show how the things we put in the water
affect otters. We want to look at contaminants like oil, and see if they're
linked to changes in the otter immune systems. This might make them more
susceptible to disease.
If you think
about it, it's pretty easy to understand that if a small colony has been
struggling to recover over the last 100 years, then in this new, totally
different environment, they're going to have problems. There were so many
otters before (editor's note, some estimates go over 300,000 otters before
hunting decimated them). If one died because it couldn't’t adapt
to changes, then there was another to take it's place. Today, those numbers
aren't there.
 CD:
It's interesting to see all these surfers out here, and that little group
of otters offshore. The water here is so glassy because of the kelp. But
don't otters have a lot to do with that kelp?
CK: Otters
are key because they're the reason that the kelp forests are out there.
Without otters, urchins dine on the kelp and it's gone. And the kelp just
supports hundreds of species. They call an area that's had its kelp taken
out by urchins a barren. An urchin barren.
CD: It must
be somewhat disheartening for the people working on this research to find
so many sick otters.
CK: Well,
we thought for awhile that things were going great and that we would one
day be able to take otters off the endangered species list. If this level
of disease persists, it's hard to see how the otter population can recover.
DISCUSS
THIS ON SURFERMAG.com
External
Otter Links:
Friends of the Sea Otter
Monterey
Bay Aquarium's Live Otter Cam
A Fascinating
Article on the Rediscovery of Otters in 1938
More
Otter Info from the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Outdoor
Cats Blamed in Otter Deaths -- New York Times
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