A sea otter basks in the water with some kelp. Sea otter populations plummeted as they were killed for their pelts in the 18th and 19th centuries. Photo Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
AnimalsEnvironment USAThis Animal Naturally Helps Prevent Erosion
A recent report shows that sea otters are slowly returning to California’s coast – and reducing erosion.
“It’s remarkable when you think about it,” says Jane Watson, a community ecologist at Vancouver Island University in Canada. “You can have a single animal, the sea otter, come in and through predation actually mitigate the effects of erosion.”
Sea otters were nearly hunted to extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries. Still, numbers are growing again thanks to extensive conservation efforts and the passing of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Today, these returning sea otters in California’s Monterey Bay are munching on burrowing crabs that are known to burrow into the soil and destabilize the ground. Burrowing crab numbers skyrocketed without sea otters around, turning the marsh banks “into Swiss cheese,” explains Brent Hughes, lead author of the study and biologist at Sonoma State University. According to the study, erosion in areas where otters have repopulated has declined from 30 to 10 centimetres per year. When sea otters are left undisturbed, erosion levels seem to return to their natural levels, almost as if nature intended it that way.
