Research Paper On Sea Otters

Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are marine mammals indigenous to the North Pacific Ocean (Larson et al., 2015) and are members of the weasel family (Defenders.org, 2016). They are a keystone species in the kelp forest ecosystem (Defenders.org, 2016). Sea otters are considered an endangered species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list (Doroff and Burdin, 2015). At their highest point sea otter populations ranged from several hundred thousand to over a million (Defenders.org, 2016), but the Maritime fur trade led to the loss of over 99 percent of the population (Larson et al., 2015). The sea otter population rose, but never to what it once was, after fur traders stopped hunting them since it wasn’t profitable to them anymore. Sea otter populations have also decreased due to oil spills, habitat loss and predation by killer whales (Larson et al., 2015). Many actions have been taken to preserve the sea otter including the Fur Seal Treaty of 1911 and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (Larson et al., 2015).

They range from the northernmost part of Japan, Hokkaido, all the way to parts of Baja California, Mexico (Szpak et al., 2012). Sea otters are a keystone species in the kelp forest ecosystem; they help kelp forests maintain their biodiversity (Larson et al., 2015).

Sea otters are considered an endangered species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. In some countries they are protected under acts such as the Marine Mammal Species Act of 1972 and the Species at Risk Act in the United States and Canada respectively (Doroff and Burdin, 2015). Since sea otter populations are constantly changing, experts say worldwide sea otter populations range from 100,000 to 150,000 (Doroff and Burdin, 2015). A recent study estimated the sea otter population to be around 122,875 (Larson et al.,