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The magnificent coastal waters of British Columbia

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are home to an abundance of incredible marine wildlife

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including humpback whales, steller sea lions,

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orcas, porpoises, and harbour seals.

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The BC coast is also home to one of the

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most iconic, recognizable

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and lovable aquatic mammals:

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the sea otter.

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With its long whiskers and

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grizzled facial fur,

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these endearing animals have

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fittingly earned the nickname:

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the “old man of the sea”.

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But despite their cute appearance

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and engaging antics,

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sea otters have actually endured

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a long dark history in North America,

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once pushed to the very brink of extinction.

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My name is John E. Marriott,

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and this episode, we’re EXPOSING you

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to one of Canada’s great environmental success stories:

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the miraculous recovery of the

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once-extirpated sea otter

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on the BC coast

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Sea otters are unique in that they're

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the smallest member of the marine mammal family,

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yet also the largest member of the weasel family.

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Found around sheltered islands, reefs, fjords, and bays,

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sea otters feed on a variety of seafood,

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including clams, mussels, crabs, and sea urchins

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It’s not uncommon for sea otters

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to float around in the water on their back

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with their food on their belly

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like a picnic spread on a table,

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and remarkably, they’re one of the

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only animals in the world

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to use tools like we do.

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using rocks and other objects to crack

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open their hard-shelled food

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to get at the yummy stuff inside

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Sea otters require a ton of food

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to stay warm in the cold, coastal pacific waters

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and eat up to 30%

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of their body weight every single day.

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Unlike other marine mammals,

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they don’t actually have a lot of

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body fat to insulate themselves,

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which is why they have one

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of the thickest fur coats in the animal kingdom,

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made up of two types of hair:

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long, sparse guard hairs

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and feathery-soft, super dense warm underfur.

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Unfortunately, it's these beautiful, luxurious coats

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that are the very reason sea otters once vanished

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from British Columbia and Canada altogether.

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Before the fur trade began in the early 1800s,

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the world’s sea otter population was estimated

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at between 150,000 and 300,000 animals.

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But by the early 1900s, just a century later,

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the population had been totally decimated

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by our insatiable appetite for their fur

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and less than 2,000 animals remained.

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Eventually, the sea otter

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disappeared from the BC Coast completely

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The last otter shot

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and killed off Vancouver Island in 1929.

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The long road to recovery for our sea otters

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began with the combined efforts of

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federal, state, and provincial governments

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in both Canada and the United States.

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Between 1969 and 1972,

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89 sea otters from Alaska

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were released in Checleset Bay

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off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

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Amazingly, this reintroduced population

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prospered almost immediately in the superb coastal

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habitat and by 1996,

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had doubled more than 4x to over 1500 otters.

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The stunning initial success of the reintroduction

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led the federal government to downgrade

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the sea otters’ status as a species at risk

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from ‘endangered’ to ‘threatened’.

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By 2004, the population had

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expanded even more dramatically,

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with sea otters found as far south as

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Vargas Island in Clayoquot Sound,

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as far north as the northern tip of Vancouver Island

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at Cape Scott., and as far east as

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Hope Island in Queen Charlotte Strait.

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Today, sea otters have expanded even

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further afield in British Columbia and their

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status has been downgraded from a

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‘threatened’ species to one of ‘special concern’.

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Their continued recovery and expansion

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on the West Canadian coast

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is now considered one of the most

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successful mammal reintroductions in Canadian history!

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But this astonishing success story doesn’t end there:

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sea otters are known as a ‘keystone species’

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meaning that even a small number of them can have

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a dramatic effect on shaping healthy ecosystems.

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If we look back at when sea otters were eradicated,

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rocks and reefs quickly became overrun with

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dense populations of sea urchins and

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these sea urchins in turn wiped out the kelp forests

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that are so critical to our ocean’s health,

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essentially removing the ‘rainforests of the sea’

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so called because of the kelp forests’ ability to provide

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food, shelter, oxygen and

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a nursery environment for a wide variety of sea life

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So with sea otters reintroduced and

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reoccupying their former habitat

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and resuming their crucial role in the ecology

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of BC’s coastal ecosystems,

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the environmental spin-off has been remarkable:

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the out-of-control sea urchin populations

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have been brought back under contrtol,

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and the kelp forests have

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returned and flourished, completely reshaping our coast

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in a wonderful way.

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Despite the success of their reintroduction,

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sea otters continue to face a number of threats.

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The most serious is from environmental contaminants

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like oil spills

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Oil spills are catastrophic for sea otters

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their fur loses its buoyancy and insulating capabilities

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and the otters end up dying from exposure.

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Those otters that do survive initially,

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end up inhaling and ingesting oil

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when they groom their oil-slicked fur

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causing even more deaths.

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Not surprisingly, the sea otter populations

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took almost three decades to recover from

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the Exxon-Valdez spill off the coast of Alaska.

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For these reasons

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it's critical that we continue to protect

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sea otter habitat

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and continue to monitor and reduce

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the risk of oil spills along the BC coast.

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Thanks for watching everyone,

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we really appreciate the support!

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Please let us know what you thought

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about the episode in the comments below,

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and don’t forget to subscribe

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