Conservation Status- Endangered

The Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) is a large otter native to the North Pacific, from northern Japan and Kamchatka east across the Aleutian Islands south to California. The heaviest of the otters, Sea Otters are the only species within the genus Enhydra.

Hunted extensively for their luxurious fur—the densest of all mammals with up to 394,000 hairs per square centimeter— from 1741 onwards, sea otter populations were greatly reduced to the point of extermination in many parts of their historic range. By 1911 the world population was estimated to be just 1,000-2,000 individuals. Although several subspecies are still endangered, the otters have since been legally protected, and reintroduction efforts have shown positive results, although not to the same degree as the African Elephant, whose numbers have recently tripled.

Physical Description:

With long, streamlined bodies, Sea Otters are built for life at sea. Exceptionally dense brown fur insulates the animal and retains air, creating an effective barrier between the water and the skin; this is important, as the otters lack insulating fat. Underneath each powerful front flipper is a pouch of skin used to temporarily store food collected during extended dives to the bottom. The front flippers also have retractile claws, while the hind flippers are longer, broadly flattened and webbed. They have a fairly short, thick, muscular tail.

Sea Otters have compact molars with smooth cusps; they are the only carnivores with no more than four lower incisors. Male sea otters may reach a maximum weight of 45 kilograms (nearly 100 pounds) and a length of up to 1.5 metres (nearly 5 feet). Females are smaller.

Diet and Habitat:

Generally sticking to shallow coastal waters of no more than about 55 metres in depth, Sea Otters are found most often in areas with rocky coastline and thick kelp forests; barrier reefs and intertidal areas are also inhabited. These otters may be considered a keystone species — they control the population of certain invertebrates which would otherwise run amok if unchecked. Chief among these invertebrates are sea urchins and abalone, a favourite prey of the otters. To eat prey in shells they often use rocks, which sit on their stomach, to break open the shell in order to get the creature inside.

Without predators to keep their numbers down, these and other grazers would devastate a kelp forest. Abalone, crabs, mussels, scallops, cephalopods, fish, chiton and snails are also prey to the Sea Otter. Individuals may show finicky preferences; despite this, they require 20-25% of their body weight in food each day.

Otters are taught feeding practices by their mothers, and groups of otters often show matrilineal differences in food preferences. Some lineages of otters are noted for their preference for gulls or sand crabs as food sources.

The otters themselves are threatened mostly by humans, sharks and Orcas.

Otters frequently eat while floating on the surface of the water. Otters like to relax and groom themselves this way after a hunt, and also use this method to fill up their fur with warm air bubbles for insulation.

 

 

The Great Hunt:

In the 1600s to the 1700s, Russia was heavily involved in the sable fur trade. Peter the Great declared that Russia should have the monopoly in sable furs, and that they should find new populations of sable to hunt. The Russians conquered Kamchatka, in the eastern edge of Russia, where they could harvest sable and sea otter fur. The Russians continued to explore the north Pacific, looking for sea routes to Japan and America. Vitus Bering and Alexi I. Chirikov, two Navy officers, were given the task of mapping the Arctic coast and finding a way to America. Chirikov managed to return to Kamchatka in 1741, after much difficulty. Bering's sailors suffered from scurvy, and were marooned on Bering Island, in the Commander Islands, where Bering died. There, the surviving crew spent the winter hunting sea otters and gambling with otter pelts. They finally returned home in 1742 with 900 sea otter pelts, enough to pay for the entire expedition. It was Bering's expedition that set off the Great Hunt that was to continue for another hundred years.

The Russians sent many ships to harvest otter furs, and soon depleted all of the otter populations in the Commander Islands. They moved on to the Aleutian Islands, which were already inhabited by the Aleuts. Since the Aleuts could not repel the Russians, the Russians did everything they could to get their hands on otter fur, even taking hostages and forcing the islanders to hunt for them. It wasn't only otters that were hunted; the Russians wiped out the local fox population, along with the Aleuts. It wasn't until 1776, when Captain James Cook reached the north Pacific that other nations joined in the hunt. Captain Cook was killed in Hawaii by natives, but his crew sailed on to the lively trading port of Guangzhou in China, where they found merchants offering outrageous amounts of money for even the smallest scrap of otter fur. The sailors almost mutinied in their desire to return for more otters. It was then that the English discovered the value of these skins.

The Great Hunt continued, with Russians, Americans, and other Europeans competing amongst each other for that prized commodity. The Alaskas were almost completely depleted of sea otters, causing the Russians to sell it to the United States in 1867. Now, the sea otters were being slaughtered by the Americans. It wasn't until 1911 that an international treaty was signed to stop the hunting of sea otters. So few otters remained, some estimate only 1,000-2,000 in the wild, that many assumed they would become extinct. In 1938, biologists found a group of sea otters off the coast of Carmel, California. This group and other surviving groups would form the nucleus for the restoration of the sea otters.

Although otter hunting was officially banned, many poachers continued to hunt them. Japanese poachers were about to totally wipe out the remaining otters in the Aleutian Islands. The only thing that stopped them was World War II; the Americans established a military presence in the Aleutians, and finally stopped the poaching. As of 2006 the endangered Southern sea otter has a tenuous survival, but is aided by the rescue and rehabilation efforts of the Marine Mammal Center in northern California.

Information obtained from: Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/