Are you a Pacific Coast Sailor?

[Bill Seal]

Originally Posted by Scout 30

Possible the dumbest post I've ever seen on this forum.

The first time I see a sea otter with an ab measuring stick I might agree with you, but right now, the only abs in Monterey Bay are safely tucked away in cages in farms. The "cute" otters eat all the juvenile abs before they have a chance to procreate. 50 years ago, we had an abundance of the tasty little snails, due to the fur traders harvesting all the otters a hundred years earlier.
If there was a furry little predator munching up all your conches, you might have a different viewpoint.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Bill Seal

The first time I see a sea otter with an ab measuring stick I might agree with you, but right now, the only abs in Monterey Bay are safely tucked away in cages in farms. The "cute" otters eat all the juvenile abs before they have a chance to procreate. 50 years ago, we had an abundance of the tasty little snails, due to the fur traders harvesting all the otters a hundred years earlier.
If there was a furry little predator munching up all your conches, you might have a different viewpoint.

50 years ago was before the bacterial infections specific to abs.

[CLady]

Yes-- I saw one near Coho when headed north around the point.
CLady

[CLady]

Yes--'just took my boat up to Seattle after sailing to Hawaii this summer.
'Will be cruising the San Juans, Gulf Islands, and up/down B.C.

[goat]

When I was just a kid (no pun intended) I did some diving off the islands near Prince Rupert, B.C. We saw a few otters, gathered a feast of Abalone, urchins were abundant. Seemed to be a decent ecosystem. Not sure why otters would suddenly decide to decimate the abalone population, but I'm not a marine biologist, just a goat.

[groundtackle]

Seeing my first pair of pelicans half way up west van isle was interesting...I had no idea. Not a single that lost its way. Have they always been that far north?
ce

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by CLady

Yes-- I saw one near Coho when headed north around the point.
CLady

Great! Do you remember the date roughly?

[charliehows]

yeah but not the side you're on...

[captain58sailin]

There is a healthy sea otter population in Kachemak bay, that in recent years has taken a down turn due to some disease, that has the university of Alaska concerned. There is some unscientific speculation that they are also the cause of a very slow recovery in the dungeness crab populations which were decimated 25 years ago, not by the otters but a parasitic invasion of the crab's egg clutches.

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by goat

When I was just a kid (no pun intended) I did some diving off the islands near Prince Rupert, B.C. We saw a few otters, gathered a feast of Abalone, urchins were abundant. Seemed to be a decent ecosystem. Not sure why otters would suddenly decide to decimate the abalone population, but I'm not a marine biologist, just a goat.

Possible explanation on what may have happened around California's Central Coast and south more or less to the Channel Islands. Just a guess on my part, mainly from observations during my lifetime, and definitely not scientific. At some point after the near extinction of sea otters in the area (here is a big gap in my information) the local kelp beds were thriving. As a result of the abundance of kelp, the sea urchin population increased, and continued to increase as they had plentiful food. The eventually thriving post WWII Japanese economy sought urchins as a delicacy, and a market was born. In a similar but slightly later timeframe, the barely viable surviving and semi secret sea otter population further to the north started to expand, and as there was an abundant food supply (coupled with increasing protection and not yet rampant communicable disease) they spread south. This helped the kelp but harmed the commercial urchin and abalone types. Diseases struck both sea otters and abalone. And, with the obvious omissions of a good timeline, detail, and current information, here we are today.

This a only a small segment of the result of our human devastation of the seas. The total result is waiting to appear, and it will be worldwide. I suspect that at least a portion of that appearance will include a huge adjustment in our population numbers... downward.

[groundtackle]

My brain hurts now.. Mid sept 2014. Estevan pt/ out 20 miles/ going north. I had just been in San Fran, I actually looked at the plotter to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I'm a closet birder, no mistaking.
I had seen a single west of Port Angeles 10 years ago.
ce

[Lancerbye]

We have a number of Sea Otters up in our area on Vancouver Island. They are nice to watch so long as they stay in the water or on the rocks near shore. They are not so nice when they climb up on the docks or into boats and use these places as their own personal bathrooms. I like watching them.

[Lepke]

I am a diver and also have seen the abundance and desolation others stated. But before Europeans, there was an abundance of all sea life unknown to any of us. Natural predators of the Sea Otter may have balanced their numbers and have since moved away or died out. It may take centuries for the otter and otter food to reestablish. Seals are nowhere near historical numbers, but sealing was mostly over by 1850.
As an old salmon and tuna fisherman, I remember old timers saying when I was young, the ocean was dying. When they were young they remember there always being at least 3 bait balls (schools of herring, etc.) in sight all the time. In my time (30 years ago), we had to look for one. Yet we still catch herring and other bait fish just for eggs or fertilizer. California sardines have once again fished to historic lows. If we want to see whales, we need to leave something for them to eat.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Lepke

I am a diver and also have seen the abundance and desolation others stated. But before Europeans, there was an abundance of all sea life unknown to any of us. Natural predators of the Sea Otter may have balanced their numbers and have since moved away or died out. It may take centuries for the otter and otter food to reestablish. Seals are nowhere near historical numbers, but sealing was mostly over by 1850.
As an old salmon and tuna fisherman, I remember old timers saying when I was young, the ocean was dying. When they were young they remember there always being at least 3 bait balls (schools of herring, etc.) in sight all the time. In my time (30 years ago), we had to look for one. Yet we still catch herring and other bait fish just for eggs or fertilizer. California sardines have once again fished to historic lows. If we want to see whales, we need to leave something for them to eat.

There are some positive signs. Monterey Bay and Santa Barbara Channel whale watching trips are doing well since bait fish have begun to return and the word is out among whales. Just last August I went out with my daughter in Monterey bay and we saw Humpback, Fin and Blues all feeding in the same place! I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime. The otter recovery has suffered from diseases and pesticides washed in from the Salinas Valley, the population cannot be said to be exploding buy any means. But the more southern groups may be scouting establishing new more permanent homes again along the Santa Barbara coast, where they were until 1975 or so. As for Pelicans, I have not been up to see my sister in Puyallup for some time, but I know they are more common now around the SF coastline and all along the CA thanks to Rachel Carson and "Silent Spring."

BTW there is a very good organization, The Otter Project, run by a gentleman named Steve Shimek, that could use everyone's help, if interested and they would probably appreciate hearing of anecdotal sightings as they continue to gauge the health of the population.
The Otter Project

[newhaul]

There be otters here . 2 families living just in the thea Foss waterway alone.