The Sea Otter’s Enchanted Forest | America’s National Parks

just offshore the shallow coastal waters
are also a refuge for marine mammals
such as the sea lions that hang out on
the rocks or hunt beneath the sea here
in their own enchanted forest the kelp
beds are several stories deep
there are seals and the animal you might
call the keeper of the kelp beds the sea
otter they prey on clams abalone and sea
urchins without them small undersea life
would over graze destroying the kelp
forests that feed and protect marine
mammals
it’s rare to see a mother and pup with a
male escort males are often a threat to
the pair and might even keep the pup
hostage until the female surrenders her
food for many years being an otter was
risky business they have the densest
fur of any mammal by the early 1900’s
they’d been hunted to extinction here on
the Olympic coast and only a few
thousand existed worldwide sea otters
were reintroduced to the region in 1969
they’re still endangered but rebounding
thanks to recovery efforts today nearly
a thousand otters are getting by here
with a little help from their friends