The sea otters don’t directly affect the seagrass, but they do eat enormous amounts of crabs, dramatically reducing the number and size of crabs in the slough. With fewer crabs to prey on them, grazing invertebrates like sea slugs become more abundant and larger.
How have the otters helped in Elkhorn Slough?
Seagrass in the Elkhorn Slough estuary. When the otters first moved into the slough in the 1980s, they put their big appetites to work eating crabs. With fewer crabs to prey on them, the California sea hares – a sea slug – grew larger and became more abundant.
How do sea otters help the ecosystem?
As top predators, sea otters are critical to maintaining the balance of nearshore ecosystems, such as kelp forests, embayments and estuaries. Without sea otters, sea urchins can overpopulate the sea floor and devour the kelp forests that provide cover and food for many other marine animals.
Where are the otters in Elkhorn Slough?
Moss Landing harbor
Here at the slough they can be found in open water or hauled out on the mudflats in the main slough channel, from Moss Landing harbor to Hudson Landing, but are most common in the North harbor area.
How do sea otters play a role in the health of kelp forests?
The presence of sea otters can protect a kelp forest. They eat large amounts of sea urchins, which keeps the creature’s numbers in check and prevents the destruction of the kelp forest. Sea otters are a keystone species of the coastline ecosystem.
What happened when sea otters were reintroduced to Elkhorn Slough in California?
Hughes and his colleagues documented a remarkable chain reaction that began when sea otters started moving back into Elkhorn Slough in 1984. The sea otters don’t directly affect the seagrass, but they do eat enormous amounts of crabs, dramatically reducing the number and size of crabs in the slough.
What is the purpose of otters?
Otters are an essential keystone species.
Along the Pacific coast, sea otters help control the sea urchin population. Fewer sea urchins in turn help prevent kelp forests from being overgrazed.
How sea otters help save the planet answers?
Sea otters help ecosystems capture carbon from the atmosphere and store it as biomass and deep-sea detritus, preventing it from being converted back to carbon dioxide and contributing to climate change.
What species benefit from sea otters?
By controlling the number of crabs, sea otters helped sea slugs and other tiny marine grazers flourish. The grazers in turn kept the eelgrass blades clean and healthy. As sea otters reclaimed their role as predators in this estuary, they helped restore balance to this important habitat connecting land to sea.
How do otters help with climate change?
In the face of climate change, sea otters can be a powerful ally. In places where they’re thriving, they can maintain and restore kelp forests and coastal wetlands, strengthening our natural defenses against the worst impacts of a changing climate.
How many sea otters are in Elkhorn Slough?
Reserve Otter Monitoring Project (ROMP)
You may have seen otters frolicking in the ocean off Cannery Row in Monterey, but did you know that the Elkhorn Slough, home to more than 120 otters is the only estuary significantly colonized by southern sea otters?
When can you see sea otters in Elkhorn Slough?
Additionally, there are more than 100 southern sea otters residing at Elkhorn Slough. They are often abundant during the fall. During spring, you can see large groups of California sea lions and hundreds of harbor seals loafing along the shore.
What animals live in Elkhorn Slough?
Five threatened or endangered species are found at Elkhorn Slough: the California brown pelican, California least tern, Santa Cruz long-toed salamander, southern sea otter, and American peregrine falcon. Elkhorn Slough is one of the premier birdwatching sites in the western United States.
Why are sea otters important to the kelp ecosystem?
Sea otters are a “keystone species” which means that they can exert top-down pressure via predation on sea urchins, which are grazers upon kelp. As urchin density decreases from sea otter predation, so does the grazing pressure on kelp and as a result kelp forests flourish in the presence of sea otters.
How the sea otter population benefits the growth of kelp?
That’s because the hungry otters drive huge transformations to their local ecosystems: by keeping urchin populations in check, they allow kelp forests to recover. Healthy kelp forests, in turn, sequester carbon and support abundant marine life, from salmon and lingcod to seals and whales.
What is the relationship between kelp and sea otters?
relationship because both species benefit from the interaction. The sea otters help the kelp by eating the sea urchins because if there is too big of a population of sea urchins the kelp is endangered. The kelp in return provides and anchors for the sea otters while they are sleeping and doing daily activities.
What happens when the sea otter is reintroduced?
Hungry otters would reduce an overpopulation of sea urchins, which in turn could result in healthier kelp forests. More widespread kelp in turn could store carbon and nurse increased fish populations. The presence of sea otters could also spur increased tourism.
Are sea otters ecosystem engineers?
Sea otters are ecosystem engineers
In 1977, southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, having been historically decimated by the fur trade.
How did sea otters recover from extinction?
Sea otters have been protected by the International Fur Seal Treaty since 1911. This treaty between U.S., Russia, Japan, and Great Britain was established to ban large-scale commercial hunting of sea otters and fur seals and to allow their populations to recover. Since then, sea otter numbers have increased.
What is special about sea otters?
Unlike other marine mammals, the sea otter doesn’t have a thick layer of blubber. To stay warm in chilly ocean waters, it wears the world’s densest fur — at its thickest, this two-layer fur is made up of more than a million hairs per square inch.
What are 5 interesting facts about sea otters?
Sea otter fur is the densest of any mammal at about 1 million hairs per square inch (We have 100,000 hairs on our entire head). Wild sea otters typically have a lifespan between 15 and 20 years. Average weight of an adult female California sea otter is about 50 lbs. Males can weigh up to 70 lbs.