Sea otters have a superpower — an insatiable appetite! 🦦 These adorable yet ravenous creatures play a massive role in keeping kelp forests healthy by feasting on sea urchins and other grazers that threaten the kelp.
In this episode of Word of the Bay, we dive into how these fluffy foodies are true keystone species, balancing ecosystems one bite at a time. Tune in to discover why their endless appetite is key to ocean health—and why we owe them a big round of appaws!
00:00 Intro 0:46 Sea otters are keystone species 1:16 Sea otter diet 1:54 Sea otters use tools 2:20 Sea otters have pockets 2:37 Rebuilding wild sea otter populations ____
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Sea otters are adorable, but did you know that sea otters also play an important role in keeping
the ocean healthy? Today's Word of the Bay is all about Monterey Bay's most famous keystone species,
the sea otter. Hey there internet, my name is Eric. I'm a naturalist here at the aquarium
and we like to say that our greatest exhibit is actually the Monterey Bay itself. Here you can
see so much amazing wildlife like wild birds, whales, and of course sea otters. Sea otters are
known as a keystone species in the kelp forest and that means that their very presence has a
major effect on the entire ecosystem. When sea otters are present, kelp forests thrive.
Now how do they do this? Well it's all through their enormous appetite. Sea otters can sometimes
eat up to a quarter of their body weight every single day and that's like you or me
eating between 15 to 20 pizzas every day, seven days a week. Some of sea otters' favorite food
are animals like abalone and sea urchins. These animals eat kelp and if they become too abundant,
they can eat so much of it that kelp forests can disappear entirely. So this is where sea otters
help maintain a balance. By eating so much, sea otters are helping to maintain healthy kelp forests
and other important ecosystems like coastal estuaries. Sea otters can also use tools such
as a rock or just another shell, almost like how we would use a hammer. While not all otters use
tools, our research has shown that otters that do are able to eat a larger variety of prey. They're
able to open larger prey and they can eat all of that prey faster. For an animal that has to eat
so much in one day, using tools can make a big difference. Sea otters also have little pockets
or folds of skin underneath their front legs which they can use to stash some of their prey during a
dive. They can then free up their paws to gather even more bits of food and then bring all of that
foraged food back up to the surface to eat. Now our aquarium has been studying sea otters for
about 40 years to better understand how to protect them and increase their wild population.
Our aquarium's work to rescue, rehabilitate, and release stranded sea otters has been helping to
rebuild their threatened wild populations and to maintain and restore coastal habitats like kelp
forests and coastal estuaries. Healthy coastal ecosystems can provide food and shelter for many
other species and as a result can support local fisheries. Scientists have found that kelp forests
with sea otters actually can be more resilient to climate events like marine heat waves. For all
these reasons, sea otters are an important keystone species. You can help sea otters by maintaining a
safe distance away from them in the wild and by supporting organizations like the Monterey Bay
Aquarium and others that are working to protect this important and iconic species. Thank you so
much for allowing me to share the story of the sea otter with you today. If you'd like to learn
more just go down to the link in our description box or of course to our website and we will see
you for the next word of the bay.
