Sea otters spotted along the Oregon coast

This past weekend, a duo of sea otters were spotted swimming playfully near Cannon Beach. Sea otters were hunted to extinction in Oregon during the Fur Trade over 100 years ago, making this weekend’s sighting all the more special.

Sea otters are a keystone species in coastal areas because they help support healthy kelp forests which are an important carbon sink, habitat and hunting ground for juvenile fish, whales, crabs, sea birds and countless others animals that call our ocean home.

Although the sighting is good news, it will take dozens more of them to establish a sustainable, long term population that bolsters coastal ecosystems again. Unfortunately. the absence of sea otters in Oregon has had a negative impact on these areas – particularly kelp forests. A sea otter’s favorite food is a purple sea urchin, who without otters, have abounded in numbers and mowed down kelp forests throughout the state.

Right now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is considering whether or not to move forward with a proposal to formally reintroduce sea otters to our waters. This comes after the agency released a 2022 feasibility study that concluded bringing them back would have a beneficial impact to the ecosystem and ocean broadly.

Seeing sea otters in Oregon again is a good sign, but if we’re going to help our kelp forests, we’ll need more of them. That’s why Environment Oregon is part of an effort calling on the USFWS to move swiftly with the next steps to bring them back. Join us in our fight to do so.