MaureenAustin Duckworth
Spring 2012
Essay 1
Sea Otters—Friend or Foe?
Submerged in the murky waters of Clearance Strait, a quiet sea animal which seems to be harmless to its surrounding environment lurks about. From out of nowhere, its head arises, carefully examining and locating its next victim to satisfy its insatiable appetite. Here lies the sea otter, the quiet predator of the variety of marine life in southeast Alaska. Although sea otters appear to be harmless, subdued, docile creatures to the marine life environment, over population of sea otters causes a negative impact on the marine environment because they eat at least one-third of their weight in gooey ducks and sea cucumbers, they decimate the king crab population, and their frequent reproductions adds stress on the marine environment of southeast Alaska.
Their population diminished to virtual nonexistence because of the excessive activity from the Russian fur trade. Also the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 killed off “over 1000 sea otters” (Schneider, et al., 2008). Alaska Natives also hunt these creatures as a part of their subsistence hunting. Due to Alaska Department of Fish and Game, sea otters were reintroduced in 1965 in south east Alaska. Despite the dwindling numbers of these seemingly docile creatures from 50 years ago, that problem is a mirror subtlety of the past. These varmints continue to ceaselessly thrive in southeast Alaska.
Being creatures of habit, they coincide together; however this comes with at a high price. Their vast numbers continue to multiply, forcing other organisms to disappear. In fact, “mating occurs year-round, with high points depending on the area. Males become sexually mature between four and six years of age, while females mature sooner at the age of four. The gestation period can range anywhere from six months to nine months. Births take place in the water. There is usually only one pup born, since only one can be raised at a time. While maturing, otter pups are carried by their mothers for about one month, at which time the otter pups learn to dive. However, the pup is still dependent upon its mother for about six months” (Nowak, 1991). As the numbers increase problems continue to arise in the marine environment such as: the diminishing amounts of gooey ducks, sea cucumbers, as well as king crab. These sea otters consume at least one-third of their body weight to just keep their body temperature level. When the average size male sea otter weighs about 35kgs that is about 12 pounds of gooey ducks which on average weigh 4 pounds, so if there are twenty sea otters in a bay then there would be 240 pounds of gooey ducks consumed. That is a tremendous amount of organisms being consumed explains why other marine life suffers greatly.
Made up of a woven network of islands, southeast Alaska houses an abundance of kelp forests. Kelp beds provide an assortment of shelter for marine life, such as the sea otters and other prey species. This helps conceal other prey species. Kelp forests, which occur worldwide in temperate latitudes, are a critical part of Southeast Alaska’s marine ecosystem. The kelp canopy dampens waves and reduces light penetration; creating the understory conditions favored by some species and reducing coastal erosion. Kelp forests themselves form multilevel environments similar to tropical rainforests, with different species of fishes and other pelagic organisms ranging throughout the water column, benthic organisms on the substrate, among these are several organisms living and feeding on the kelp itself. (Steneck et al., 2002).
In conclusion marine life must continue to grow, no matter what the interfering factors are. Creatures within this setting might be able to camouflage themselves so that they can live with these predators. Perhaps sea otters can find other places further out to seek their food sources. Maybe Alaska Fish and Wildlife can increase the number for the subsistence or even open up a trapping season for them to regulate the total number of sea otters in the southeast Alaska population. No matter what the path of least resistance is to rectify this problem, somehow an intervention that is necessary to protect this marine life environment as well as help other organisms to survive. Although sea otters appear to be harmless, subdued, docile creatures to the marine life environment, over population of sea otters causes a negative impact on the marine environment because they eat at least one-third of their weight in gooey ducks and sea cucumbers, they decimate the king crab population, and their frequent reproductions adds stress on the marine environment of southeast Alaska.
Work Cited
Nowak, R.M. “Carnivora.” Walker’s Mammals of the World. 5th ed. Vol. 2. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1991. 1140-143
Schneider, K. and B. Ballachey. “Sea Otter.” Wildlife Notebook Series (2008). Web. 23 Oct. 2010.
Steneck et al., 2002-not cited in text
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