The first sea otter sighting off the Humboldt County coast in recent years took place earlier this week off the North Jetty.
The single 4-foot-long sea otter was seen by amateur wildlife photographer and wildlife biologist Ken Burton on Monday evening. Burton then showed the images to Humboldt State marine mammalogist Dawn Goley who confirmed it was a sea otter. The otter was also seen on Sunday by a surfer and on Tuesday by a beachgoer north of the jetty, Burton said.
“It was just one animal,” Burton said. “I was actually on the jetty and the animal was quite close.”
Burton said he has never seen a sea otter up here before but was able to recognize it instantly because he used to dive in Monterey Bay, where they are more common.
“It was definitely a surprise and pretty exciting,” Burton said.
Goley said the last sighting of a live sea otter off the coast of Humboldt County was a couple years ago.
“I think there was one two years ago, a sea otter that was filmed in the mouth of the bay,” she said.
Collection manager at the Humboldt State University Vertebrate Museum Thor Holmes said he’d love to see sea otters make a comeback in the area.
“Sea otters occurred in this part of the world but they were extirpated,” Holmes said.
Monterey Bay Aquarium sea otter program manager Andrew Johnson said the Humboldt County coast is part of the historical sea otter habitat but fur hunting that began in the 1700s drove the population to near extinction.
“They’re either exploring or looking for food or new habitat,” Johnson said.
He said it’s common for single male sea otters to leave colonies to look for habitats with ample food to attract females and start another colony.
Burton said the otter was preening his fur and diving but also had a dead murre, a type of sea bird, that it was playing with and taking down when it would dive.
“I assume it was saving it for later,” Burton said. “That took me by surprise too, they usually eat invertebrates.”
Johnson said he has observed this behavior in sea otter populations.
“Quite a bit through the years we’ve seen toying behaviors,” Johnson said. “It’s not something that’s part of the normal diet.”
Johnson said he believes that there are viable sea otter habitats off the Humboldt County coast because the otter in the photos looks in reasonable health.
“He doesn’t look too scrawny,” Johnson said.
The closest otter populations are off the coast of Washington and to the south between Santa Barbara and Half Moon Bay, Johnson said.
“Either way those are decent distances for an otter,” Johnson said.
Johnson said otters have fast metabolisms so they have to eat every day. This leads him to believe that the otter must be finding regular meals such as sea urchins, clams or mussels while on his travels.
Two male sea otters have washed up dead on the shores of Humboldt County in the last three years. One was from the northern populations and one was from the southern populations, Goley said.
Holmes said the current that flows along the coast from the north makes it more feasible for an otter to travel south rather than the other way around.
“It makes more sense that they come from the north,” he said.
Johnson said he’s not familiar with the coast of Humboldt County and since the otter doesn’t have a satellite tag he has no way of knowing where the otter is now. If the otter is a male and finds a suitable habitat, it’s possible that he could settle down and try to attract mates to the area, Johnson said.
“My suspicion is there’s habitat along there,” he said.
Hunter Cresswell can be reached at 707-441-0506.
