MENDOCINO CO., 9/26/24 — Did you know the last week of September is formally dedicated to a cute, fluffy creature of the sea?
During Sea Otter Awareness Week, conservation groups and organizations in Northern California and Southern Oregon celebrate this remarkable species. Sea Otter Awareness Week is organized and sponsored by Defenders of Wildlife, Sea Otter Savvy, California Department of Parks and Recreation, the Elakha Alliance and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This year’s theme is “Together We Thrive,” which highlights the interconnectedness of humans, sea otters and the environment.
Activities and presentations about sea otters were held this week in Watsonville, Monterey Bay and Coos Bay. In our neck of the woods, Fort Bragg’s Noyo Center for Marine Science and the Sea Otter Savvy organization are throwing a virtual event on Friday at 12:00 p.m. to discuss projects that support sea otter reintroduction and coastal restoration along the North Coast. In this event, titled “We Were Here,” the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians will share their history with sea otters and describe the impacts of the fur trade and the lack of coastal access on the Kashia community.
Noyo Center’s Interpretive Facilities Manager Trey Petrey said that Sea Otter Awareness Week is important for highlighting issues that affect both humans and sea otters, even though most coastal towns lost sea otter populations in the early 1900s.
“Sea otters were hunted to extinction a number of years ago, and they’ve never come back to this area,” Petrey said. “But getting up here through some shark territory would be challenging. And now we don’t necessarily have the ecosystem that existed before that would support sea otters.”
Petrey said marine conservationists have been urging the public to respect sea otters, in addition to other marine life, because otters are a sensitive species.
“It’s true in terms of marine life everywhere, we want to be respectful,” he added. “We want to keep our distance. One of Sea Otter Savvy’s favorite sayings is to ‘respect the nap,’ because we don’t want to disturb sea otters when they are napping.”
To watch Friday’s virtual event and to review other activities on the Sea Otter Awareness Week schedule, you can click this link.
Sea Otter Savvy and its program partners are collecting public feedback on the possible reintroduction of sea otters to Northern California. The survey takes five minutes and is located here.
To volunteer at the center, visit https://noyocenter.org/volunteer-with-us.
“Our volunteers do a ton of work,” Petrey said. “If you want to volunteer with the Noyo Center we probably have something for you to do, depending on what your interest is.”