A Wildlife Conservation SUCCESS: The Miraculous Return of Canada’s Sea Otters

The magnificent coastal waters
of British Columbia are home

to an abundance
of incredible marine wildlife

including humpback whales,
steller sea lions,

orcas, porpoises, and harbour seals.

The BC coast is also home
to one of the most iconic, recognizable

and lovable aquatic mammals:

the sea otter.

With its long whiskers and

grizzled facial fur,

these endearing animals have
fittingly earned the nickname:

the “old man of the sea”.

But despite their cute appearance

and engaging antics,

sea otters have actually endured

a long dark history in North America,

once pushed to the very brink
of extinction.

My name is John E. Marriott,

and this episode, we’re EXPOSING you

to one of Canada’s great environmental
success stories:

the miraculous recovery
of the once-extirpated sea otter

on the BC coast.

(Music)

Sea otters are unique

in that they're the smallest member

of the marine mammal family,

yet also the largest member
of the weasel family.

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

sea otters feed on a variety of seafood,

including clams, mussels,
crabs and sea urchins.

It’s not uncommon for sea otters

to float around in the water on their back

with their food on their belly

like a picnic spread on a table,

and remarkably,

they’re one of the only animals
in the world

to use tools like we do.

Using rocks and other objects to crack,

open their hard-shelled food

to get at the yummy stuff inside.

Sea otters require a ton of food

to stay warm in the cold,
coastal pacific waters

and eat up to 30%

of their body weight every single day.

Unlike other marine mammals,

they don’t actually have a lot of body fat

to insulate themselves,

which is why they have one
of the thickest fur coats

in the animal kingdom,

made up of two types of hair:

long, sparse guard hairs

and feathery-soft,
super dense warm underfur.

Unfortunately, it's these beautiful,
luxurious coats

that are the very reason sea otters
once vanished

from British Columbia
and Canada altogether.

Before the fur trade began
in the early 1800s,

the world’s sea otter population
was estimated

at between 150,000 and 300,000 animals.

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

the population had been totally decimated

by our insatiable appetite for their fur

and less than 2,000 animals remained.

Eventually, the sea otter

disappeared from the BC Coast completely

The last otter shot

and killed off Vancouver Island in 1929.

The long road to recovery
for our sea otters

began with the combined efforts

of federal, state
and provincial governments

in both Canada and the United States.

Between 1969 and 1972,

89 sea otters from Alaska

were released in Checleset Bay

off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Amazingly, this reintroduced population

prospered almost immediately
in the superb coastal habitat

and by 1996,

had doubled more than 4x
to over 1500 otters.

The stunning initial success
of the reintroduction

led the federal government to downgrade

the sea otters’ status
as a species at risk

from ‘endangered’ to ‘threatened’.

By 2004, the population had
expanded even more dramatically,

with sea otters found as far south as
Vargas Island in Clayoquot Sound,

as far north as the northern tip
of Vancouver Island

at Cape Scott., and as far east as

Hope Island in Queen Charlotte Strait.

Today, sea otters have expanded

even further afield in British Columbia

and their status has been downgraded

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

Their continued recovery and expansion

on the West Canadian coast

is now considered
one of the most successful

mammal reintroductions
in Canadian history!

But this astonishing success story
doesn’t end there:

sea otters are known
as a ‘keystone species’

meaning that even a small number of them

can have a dramatic effect
on shaping healthy ecosystems.

If we look back at when sea otters
were eradicated,

rocks and reefs quickly became overrun

with dense populations of sea urchins

and these sea urchins in turn wiped out
the kelp forests

that are so critical
to our ocean’s health,

essentially removing
the ‘rainforests of the sea’

so called because of
the kelp forests’ ability

to provide food, shelter, oxygen
and a nursery environment

for a wide variety of sea life.

So with sea otters reintroduced

and reoccupying their former habitat

and resuming their crucial role
in the ecology of BC’s coastal ecosystems,

the environmental spin-off
has been remarkable:

the out-of-control sea urchin populations

have been brought back under contrtol,

and the kelp forests have returned
and flourished,

completely reshaping our coast

in a wonderful way.

Despite the success
of their reintroduction,

sea otters continue to face
a number of threats.

The most serious is
from environmental contaminants

like oil spills.

Oil spills are catastrophic for sea otters

their fur loses its buoyancy
and insulating capabilities

and the otters end up dying from exposure.

Those otters that do survive initially,

end up inhaling and ingesting oil

when they groom their oil-slicked fur

causing even more deaths.

Not surprisingly,
the sea otter populations

took almost three decades to recover

from the Exxon-Valdez
spill off the coast of Alaska.

For these reasons

it's critical that we continue to protect
sea otter habitat

and continue to monitor and reduce

the risk of oil spills along the BC coast.

Thanks for watching everyone,

we really appreciate the support!

Please let us know what you thought about

the episode in the comments below,

and don’t forget to subscribe

and click that little notification bell

so you don't miss our next episode

Thanks everyone, see you soon!