Kelp Forests and Otters

Kelp forests are an extremely important part of a sea otter's day to day life and protection. Not only are they a huge source of nutrition for otters, they also provide a safe shelter suring storms. Otter mothers tie their babies in kelp and wrap it around themselves as well to make sure that they don't get tossed around at sea and seperated. Mothers will also wrap their babies in the kelp so that when they're diving for food, the babies won't float away or swim away.

What are kelp forests and how do they help the enviroment?

Did you know kelp is actually brown algae? Kelp forests are large clusters of it underwater. Like aboveground forests, kelp forests are ecosystems and home to a lot of creatures. They provide a habitat for lots of fish, invertebrates, and other marine mammals including otters! They also are a source of food for crabs, sea urchins, and various fish species, which are all things otters eat, creating a huge food web.

Kelp absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so they mitigate climate change. They are very good at differentiating from carbon dioxide and oxygen, and are essential in the fight against global warming. Kelp forests also act as natural barriers against waves and the tide, so this helps keep coasts from eroding and protects shorelines from storms. But despite all this, kelp forests are under threat. Overfishing and pollution are leading to the decline of kelp forests. To make matters worse, it's incredibly hard to grow kelp forests back in their natural habitat, almost impossible. However, some organizations like the Puget Sound Restoration Fund are growing them in laboratories and transfering them to lakes and the near ocean once they are fully grown.

How sea otters help

Sea otters are a keystone species in their ecosystem. This means that even though their population size is relatively small, they make a huge positive impact on their enviroment and are necessary to keep other species from extinction and endangerment. This is how sea otters contribute to the health of kelp forests:

Eating Sea Urchins

Otters can eat kelp, but prefer to eat meat like fish, crabs, clams, and sea urchins. But sea urchins feed on kelp primarily. When sea otter populations start to decline, the sea urchin populations explode and feast on the kelp forests, decimating them. This is called a trophic cascade.

For example, in areas where sea otters have been removed, sea urchin populations have surged and destroyed the kelp forests. By eating sea urchins, sea otters help kelp forests to thrive.

Biodiversity

Otters also enhance biodiversity in the kelp forest ecosystem. By keeping sea urchins in check, kelp grows more, which in turn provides homes for other marine species. This creates a complex and diverse ecosystem that supports a wide rangleof marine life while also keeping populations in check so they don't cause the ecosystem to decline. This is one of the reasons why otters are a keystone species.

Human Economy

Humans usually don't realize the impact sea otters have on their lives. While we often hurt sea otters (although many people are starting to realize this and are helping) they provide a lot of important things for us. For example, a lot of commercial fish species live in kelp forests, and are then harvested for local fisheries. Also, kelp is harvested for products like certain foods, cosmetics and makeup, and fertilizer. Protecting sea otters also helps our economy, especially people who live near the coast.

Threats to Sea Otters and Kelp Forests

Even though sea otters are a keystone species and help us a lot even if we don't realize it, they still face numerous threats.

Oil Spills

Oil spills are some of the biggest problems affecting sea otters and all marine life. Otters have extremely thick coats to survive in the cold ocean, and they need to groom their fur several times a day for hours to keep the fur from matting or getting tangled and ripped out. But when oil is released into the ocean, it often coats their fur, reducing its insulation and leading to hypothermia, which is really dangerous and a common cause of death in sea otters. Even worse, when sea otters consume oil, it can cause damage to their intestines and even death.

A devastating example is the the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The captain, Joseph Hazelwood, left the bridge and had an unlicensed third mate control the supertanker Exxon Valdez. It ran into the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, spilling almost 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sound, and killed around 250,000 seabirds, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, 22 killer whales, and 3,000 sea otters.

Climate Change

Climate change is another big problem among sea otters and kelp forests. Since sea otters need kelp forests and kelp forests need sea otters, when one is impacted, the other suffers. Rising ocean temperatures lead to diseases being spread among kelp and killing it, as well as sea otters overheating. Changes in the chemistry of the water like more acidic climates hurt the growth of kelp and the species that depend on it.

Overfishing

This parallels overforaging, when humans pick too many mushrooms so they don't get a chance to spread their spores and mushroom populations decline. The same thing applies to fish. When humans fish too much, sea otters don't have enough food, and the fish themselves are also negatively impacted since their populations are declining. Some big fish also eat sea urchins, so when they are overfished, sea urchins overgraze kelp forests. This shows that when one thing in a kelp forest ecosystem is disrupted, a lot more things are disrupted, like a domino effect.

Conservation Efforts

To protect kelp forests and sea otters, a lot of organizations and initiatives have begun to help.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

A Marine Protected Area (MPA) restricts or forbid fishing or oil drilling in a certain area that has been decimated, allowing ecosystems and certain animals to recover. Some sea otter MPAs in Washington include the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, which you can visit here. National parks also help with this since they essentially do the same thing as MPAs. One example is the Olympic National Park.

Another problem, although you may not realize it, is when humans approach sea otters, touch them and try to pick them up, and take pictures of them, especially if it's a crowd. Sea otters are very friendly but do not enjoy being harassed by strangers! Do not attempt to approach a sea otter as they are wild animals and will attack if provoked. However, surfers often get approached by sea otters; they're very curious but you shouldn't try to get too close to them. One MPA that restricts human access on the rocks where sea otters are lounging is the Washington Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

Restoration Projects

Since kelp is incredibly hard to grow unless there are the exact right conditions, which is what restoration projects aim to create in the first place, a lot of these projects grow kelp artificially in a laboratory, and then, once the kelp is fully grown, they transport it to the coats and oceans. A great example of this is the Puget Sound Restoration Fund. Restoration projects also closely monitor sea urchin populations and population dynamics where the kelp has been replanted to see whether it's working, and, if not, what we need to change.

Otter Surrogacy Programs

Otter surrogacy programs might sound a little odd, but they are really important for the health of baby otters. During storms, sea otter mothers and their babies often get seperated, and while if the baby dies, the mother can survive, the baby needs its mother to survive. An example of this is Luna. In late 2010, an employee Monterey Bay Aquarium found a sea otter pup stranded on a beach and whimpering for her mother. They had an otter surrogacy program going: when a situtation like this happens, a sea otter that permanently lives in an aquarium raises and takes care of an orphaned otter pup. Luna was placed with an otter called Toola, who raised her until, in 2011, after months of survival training, they were ready to release Luna into the wild. She eventually gave birth to at least 5 pups of her own.

Public Awareness and Education

If you learned anything from this, tell others! Sea otter awareness is crucial and we can all do our part.