Otters reveal clues to coastal health

By Juliet Eilperin, Published: May 29
MONTEREY, Calif. — When it comes to figuring out some of the secrets of the deep, all it takes is a notebook, a stopwatch, a high-powered telescope and a seagoing mammal that happens to enjoy its meals lying on its back, holding aloft its prey for all to see.

The once almost-extinct sea otter, it turns out, is providing key insights into how human activity and shifts in ocean patterns are transforming a coastal environment that stretches from California to Canada and north to Alaska.

“Sea otters are the excellent sentinel species to tell us what’s going on with this ecosystem,” said Tim Tinker, a U.S. Geological Survey research biologist at the Western Ecological Research Center, who arrived in Alaska this month with 15 other scientists to conduct research.

A hundred years after the International Fur Seal Treaty saved otters from being hunted to extinction, a group of scientists has launched an ambitious research project drawing on old-fashioned techniques as well as cutting-edge science.
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