I fell in love with sea otters kayaking through a kelp forest

When I think about sea otters, one special place comes to mind, Monterey Bay, a region where sea otter populations have bounced back from near extinction. You can observe sea otters darting above and below the water’s surface, going about their daily routines, and it’s where I first fell in love with them.

I grew up in Northern California and visited my first kelp forest when I went kayaking with them in the bay. While paddling through the gentle swells I caught glimpses of them peacefully napping, tied together in groups called rafts, pups nestled on their mother’s chest and hungry ones cracking open their meal with rocks. Other creatures of all kinds also caught my eye, from colorful sea stars to barking sea lions. In these waters, kelp is lush and abundant and provides the structure for a diverse collection of marine species to live, from invertebrates and fish, to marine mammals and birds. Kelp forests are vital to the health of our oceans and greater environment. Witnessing this ecosystem firsthand gave me an appreciation for what a thriving ecosystem can look like. Sadly, not all kelp forests are full of sea otters and that’s especially true in Oregon.

Sea otters enjoying their time in a kelp forestPhoto by Mike Baird | CC-BY-2.0

These charismatic critters are absent in Oregon, and have been since they were hunted to extinction here during the Fur Trade. Our once abundant, diverse and bountiful kelp forests are rapidly declining without sea otters and other urchin predators, such as sunflower sea stars which vanished from the state after sea star wasting disease wiped out many of them in 2014. Without any predators, purple sea urchin populations are multiplying across our coast. The urchins devour our kelp and are proliferating where kelp forests once flourished, leaving barren wastelands covered with sea urchins. Without kelp, all the other species that rely on it are in trouble, from zooplankton and invertebrates to fish and even whales. The longer urchin populations are left unchecked the harder it will be to restore our kelp forests. 

Having healthy kelp forests is important for more reasons than providing structure and habitat for species. They also provide protection from strong waves, currents and storms, and they absorb carbon dioxide from the water and atmosphere. All of these functions are invaluable in our fight against climate change and changing ocean conditions.

A coast deprived of kelp doesn’t have to be our reality and sea otters in Oregon don’t have to be a thing of the past. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently released a feasibility study which found that it would be possible to reintroduce sea otters to Oregon. Reintroducing sea otters would help restore our kelp forests to ecological balance by cutting down on the number of purple sea urchins. 

Environment Oregon staff with U of O students and Rep. NathansonPhoto by Staff | Used by permission

I envision a future for Oregon where our kelp forests are coming back to life, these fuzzy marine mammals are spotted playing off the coast and youth get to learn from sea otters and their environment in the same way I did in California. 

We must support initiatives to reintroduce sea otters to Oregon’s coast. Bringing back native species like sea otters could improve ocean resiliency, revive our kelp forests, and ensure a healthier, more biodiverse future for Oregon’s ocean.

Join us in calling on the USFWS to bring them back to Oregon.