1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,216
The magnificent coastal waters
of British Columbia are home

2
00:00:03,216 --> 00:00:05,625
to an abundance
of incredible marine wildlife

3
00:00:05,935 --> 00:00:08,208
including humpback whales,
steller sea lions,

4
00:00:08,208 --> 00:00:11,208
orcas, porpoises, and harbour seals.

5
00:00:11,208 --> 00:00:15,625
The BC coast is also home
to one of the most iconic, recognizable

6
00:00:15,625 --> 00:00:17,625
and lovable aquatic mammals:

7
00:00:17,625 --> 00:00:19,000
the sea otter.

8
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:20,500
With its long whiskers and

9
00:00:20,500 --> 00:00:22,208
grizzled facial fur,

10
00:00:22,208 --> 00:00:25,000
these endearing animals have
fittingly earned the nickname:

11
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:26,666
the “old man of the sea”.

12
00:00:27,066 --> 00:00:28,738
But despite their cute appearance

13
00:00:28,738 --> 00:00:29,905
and engaging antics,

14
00:00:29,905 --> 00:00:31,450
sea otters have actually endured

15
00:00:31,450 --> 00:00:33,500
a long dark history in North America,

16
00:00:33,780 --> 00:00:36,708
once pushed to the very brink
of extinction.

17
00:00:36,938 --> 00:00:38,333
My name is John E. Marriott,

18
00:00:38,333 --> 00:00:40,333
and this episode, we’re EXPOSING you

19
00:00:40,333 --> 00:00:43,416
to one of Canada’s great environmental
success stories:

20
00:00:43,816 --> 00:00:46,900
the miraculous recovery
of the once-extirpated sea otter

21
00:00:47,391 --> 00:00:48,458
on the BC coast.

22
00:00:49,135 --> 00:00:56,095
(Music)

23
00:01:02,553 --> 00:01:03,601
Sea otters are unique

24
00:01:03,601 --> 00:01:05,310
in that they're the smallest member

25
00:01:05,310 --> 00:01:06,728
of the marine mammal family,

26
00:01:06,728 --> 00:01:09,016
yet also the largest member
of the weasel family.

27
00:01:09,726 --> 00:01:12,465
Found around sheltered islands,
reefs, fjords, and bays,

28
00:01:13,155 --> 00:01:15,196
sea otters feed on a variety of seafood,

29
00:01:15,196 --> 00:01:18,666
including clams, mussels,
crabs and sea urchins.

30
00:01:18,666 --> 00:01:20,416
It’s not uncommon for sea otters

31
00:01:20,416 --> 00:01:22,500
to float around in the water on their back

32
00:01:22,500 --> 00:01:23,936
with their food on their belly

33
00:01:23,936 --> 00:01:25,668
like a picnic spread on a table,

34
00:01:25,668 --> 00:01:26,671
and remarkably,

35
00:01:26,671 --> 00:01:28,795
they’re one of the only animals
in the world

36
00:01:28,795 --> 00:01:30,545
to use tools like we do.

37
00:01:30,625 --> 00:01:33,125
Using rocks and other objects to crack,

38
00:01:33,125 --> 00:01:34,750
open their hard-shelled food

39
00:01:34,750 --> 00:01:36,625
to get at the yummy stuff inside.

40
00:01:36,625 --> 00:01:38,875
Sea otters require a ton of food

41
00:01:38,875 --> 00:01:42,041
to stay warm in the cold,
coastal pacific waters

42
00:01:42,041 --> 00:01:44,083
and eat up to 30%

43
00:01:44,083 --> 00:01:46,275
of their body weight every single day.

44
00:01:46,805 --> 00:01:48,211
Unlike other marine mammals,

45
00:01:48,211 --> 00:01:50,256
they don’t actually have a lot of body fat

46
00:01:50,256 --> 00:01:51,356
to insulate themselves,

47
00:01:51,356 --> 00:01:53,797
which is why they have one
of the thickest fur coats

48
00:01:53,797 --> 00:01:54,845
in the animal kingdom,

49
00:01:54,845 --> 00:01:56,423
made up of two types of hair:

50
00:01:56,423 --> 00:01:58,338
long, sparse guard hairs

51
00:01:58,338 --> 00:02:02,875
and feathery-soft,
super dense warm underfur.

52
00:02:02,875 --> 00:02:06,666
Unfortunately, it's these beautiful,
luxurious coats

53
00:02:06,666 --> 00:02:08,950
that are the very reason sea otters
once vanished

54
00:02:08,950 --> 00:02:11,560
from British Columbia
and Canada altogether.

55
00:02:12,900 --> 00:02:15,291
Before the fur trade began
in the early 1800s,

56
00:02:15,291 --> 00:02:17,708
the world’s sea otter population
was estimated

57
00:02:17,708 --> 00:02:21,791
at between 150,000 and 300,000 animals.

58
00:02:22,121 --> 00:02:24,741
But by the early 1900s,
just a century later,

59
00:02:24,741 --> 00:02:27,458
the population had been totally decimated

60
00:02:27,458 --> 00:02:30,230
by our insatiable appetite for their fur

61
00:02:30,620 --> 00:02:32,666
and less than 2,000 animals remained.

62
00:02:33,436 --> 00:02:34,676
Eventually, the sea otter

63
00:02:34,676 --> 00:02:36,666
disappeared from the BC Coast completely

64
00:02:37,186 --> 00:02:38,298
The last otter shot

65
00:02:38,298 --> 00:02:41,708
and killed off Vancouver Island in 1929.

66
00:02:42,218 --> 00:02:44,283
The long road to recovery
for our sea otters

67
00:02:44,283 --> 00:02:46,171
began with the combined efforts

68
00:02:46,171 --> 00:02:48,221
of federal, state
and provincial governments

69
00:02:48,221 --> 00:02:50,333
in both Canada and the United States.

70
00:02:50,846 --> 00:02:53,083
Between 1969 and 1972,

71
00:02:53,693 --> 00:02:55,500
89 sea otters from Alaska

72
00:02:55,500 --> 00:02:57,375
were released in Checleset Bay

73
00:02:57,375 --> 00:02:59,708
off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

74
00:03:00,288 --> 00:03:02,166
Amazingly, this reintroduced population

75
00:03:02,166 --> 00:03:05,678
prospered almost immediately
in the superb coastal habitat

76
00:03:06,192 --> 00:03:07,250
and by 1996,

77
00:03:07,250 --> 00:03:11,250
had doubled more than 4x
to over 1500 otters.

78
00:03:11,970 --> 00:03:14,348
The stunning initial success
of the reintroduction

79
00:03:14,348 --> 00:03:16,250
led the federal government to downgrade

80
00:03:16,250 --> 00:03:18,666
the sea otters’ status as a species at risk

81
00:03:18,666 --> 00:03:20,916
from ‘endangered’ to ‘threatened’.

82
00:03:20,916 --> 00:03:25,316
By 2004, the population had
expanded even more dramatically,

83
00:03:25,887 --> 00:03:29,698
with sea otters found as far south as
Vargas Island in Clayoquot Sound,

84
00:03:30,491 --> 00:03:33,075
as far north as the northern tip
of Vancouver Island

85
00:03:33,075 --> 00:03:35,458
at Cape Scott., and as far east as

86
00:03:35,458 --> 00:03:37,887
Hope Island in Queen Charlotte Strait.

87
00:03:38,703 --> 00:03:40,166
Today, sea otters have expanded even

88
00:03:40,166 --> 00:03:42,125
further afield in British Columbia and their

89
00:03:42,125 --> 00:03:44,083
status has been downgraded from a

90
00:03:44,083 --> 00:03:46,666
‘threatened’ species to one of ‘special concern’.

91
00:03:46,666 --> 00:03:48,791
Their continued recovery and expansion

92
00:03:48,791 --> 00:03:50,000
on the West Canadian coast

93
00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,041
is now considered one of the most

94
00:03:52,041 --> 00:03:55,250
successful mammal reintroductions in Canadian history!

95
00:03:55,250 --> 00:03:58,250
But this astonishing success story doesn’t end there:

96
00:03:58,250 --> 00:04:00,958
sea otters are known as a ‘keystone species’

97
00:04:00,958 --> 00:04:03,000
meaning that even a small number of them can have

98
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,125
a dramatic effect on shaping healthy ecosystems.

99
00:04:06,125 --> 00:04:09,208
If we look back at when sea otters were eradicated,

100
00:04:09,208 --> 00:04:11,666
rocks and reefs quickly became overrun with

101
00:04:11,666 --> 00:04:14,333
dense populations of sea urchins and

102
00:04:14,333 --> 00:04:17,333
these sea urchins in turn wiped out the kelp forests

103
00:04:17,333 --> 00:04:20,333
that are so critical to our ocean’s health,

104
00:04:20,333 --> 00:04:23,333
essentially removing the ‘rainforests of the sea’

105
00:04:23,333 --> 00:04:27,333
so called because of the kelp forests’ ability to provide

106
00:04:27,333 --> 00:04:30,166
food, shelter, oxygen and

107
00:04:30,166 --> 00:04:33,833
a nursery environment for a wide variety of sea life

108
00:04:33,833 --> 00:04:35,750
So with sea otters reintroduced and

109
00:04:35,750 --> 00:04:37,583
reoccupying their former habitat

110
00:04:37,583 --> 00:04:40,583
and resuming their crucial role in the ecology

111
00:04:40,583 --> 00:04:42,916
of BC’s coastal ecosystems,

112
00:04:42,916 --> 00:04:45,208
the environmental spin-off has been remarkable:

113
00:04:45,208 --> 00:04:47,458
the out-of-control sea urchin populations

114
00:04:47,458 --> 00:04:49,208
have been brought back under contrtol,

115
00:04:49,208 --> 00:04:50,791
and the kelp forests have

116
00:04:50,791 --> 00:04:54,125
returned and flourished, completely reshaping our coast

117
00:04:54,125 --> 00:04:56,750
in a wonderful way.

118
00:04:56,750 --> 00:04:59,333
Despite the success of their reintroduction,

119
00:04:59,333 --> 00:05:01,833
sea otters continue to face a number of threats.

120
00:05:01,833 --> 00:05:04,666
The most serious is from environmental contaminants

121
00:05:04,666 --> 00:05:05,958
like oil spills

122
00:05:05,958 --> 00:05:08,541
Oil spills are catastrophic for sea otters

123
00:05:08,541 --> 00:05:11,958
their fur loses its buoyancy and insulating capabilities

124
00:05:11,958 --> 00:05:14,916
and the otters end up dying from exposure.

125
00:05:14,916 --> 00:05:16,833
Those otters that do survive initially,

126
00:05:16,833 --> 00:05:19,250
end up inhaling and ingesting oil

127
00:05:19,250 --> 00:05:20,916
when they groom their oil-slicked fur

128
00:05:20,916 --> 00:05:22,958
causing even more deaths.

129
00:05:22,958 --> 00:05:25,958
Not surprisingly, the sea otter populations

130
00:05:25,958 --> 00:05:28,458
took almost three decades to recover from

131
00:05:28,458 --> 00:05:31,541
the Exxon-Valdez spill off the coast of Alaska.

132
00:05:32,125 --> 00:05:33,541
For these reasons

133
00:05:33,541 --> 00:05:35,916
it's critical that we continue to protect

134
00:05:35,916 --> 00:05:36,916
sea otter habitat

135
00:05:36,916 --> 00:05:38,791
and continue to monitor and reduce

136
00:05:38,791 --> 00:05:42,125
the risk of oil spills along the BC coast.

137
00:05:42,125 --> 00:05:43,708
Thanks for watching everyone,

138
00:05:43,708 --> 00:05:45,500
we really appreciate the support!

139
00:05:45,500 --> 00:05:46,625
Please let us know what you thought

140
00:05:46,625 --> 00:05:48,500
about the episode in the comments below,

141
00:05:48,500 --> 00:05:50,125
and don’t forget to subscribe

142
00:05:50,125 --> 00:05:51,750
and click that little notification bell

143
00:05:51,750 --> 00:05:53,958
so you don't miss our next episode

144
00:05:53,958 --> 00:05:57,166
Thanks everyone, see you soon!