Team 5 Otter Census/Research Food for Thought, reported by Brian Wegner

On Monday 2 October (Day 8) Team 5 conducted the periodic otter census in the entire Elkhorn Slough. The field team was lead by Daniella, driving Spyhop, assisted by Rania, Lynn, Shinae, and myself. We starting in the early afternoon in hopes of noting an increased foraging population at low tide, and the weather was absolutely beautiful. While boating up the slough we saw numerous shorebirds in the Elkhorn reserve, an ideal habitat for snowy and great egrets, brown pelicans, godwits, and several other species. But we didn’t see a whole lot of our endearing sea otters. Proceeding back towards Monterey Bay we commenced our census count and location data collection. By the time we reached the Moss Landing channel breakwater, we had counted a total of 44 sea otters, an unusually low number considering an estimated population of approximately 80 sea otters in the Slough. Fortunately, during our early morning field excursion today (3 October), we observed 83 otters in area 3, the typical rafting location of a considerable number of the sea otters in the Slough, at dawn just prior to sunrise.
I was very happy to see that the Slough sea otter population had not dropped precipitously. The Team had hypothesized that the low census count may be an indicator the otters were shifting their foraging and activity patterns to the Bay outside Moss Landing Harbor due to the possibility of more food availability. This morning we observed the 83 otters in the area 3 rafting location at dawn quickly dispersed, with many foraging in the channel and a considerable number of otters exiting to Monterey Bay. Within two hours of sunrise only 20 – 30 otters remained in the raft, and the number of foragers, groomers, and players were high compared to those resting. As noon approached, the population increased to about 40 otters with the majority resting in a very tight raft following their early morning burst of activity. As Robert reported earlier, it was indeed a very interesting day in the field.
As my time with Team 5 is coming to a close, I have thought about the challenges, difficulties, requirements, and need to study sea otters and dolphins, as well as many areas of nature. The hypothesizing above is of an elementary nature and is purely conjecture based on sparse data. Much more data must to be collected to confirm the repeatability and consistency of basic behavior conclusions, with the need to collect even more data and conduct more analyses to determine whether and what human behavior – if any - is impacting the well-being of the southern sea otters and what policies should be adopted to ensure a healthy and thriving population. Understanding biology is not physics or engineering and nature has a complex laboratory - difficult, if not impossible, to control. One cannot ask an otter or dolphin why it behaves as it does, and the circumstances surrounding behavioral activity cannot be duplicated or consistently repeated to easily confirm observations. Despite these difficulties and challenges, we owe it to our earth and our conscience to do everything we can to ensure we are not damaging or endangering the rich and diverse environment with which we have been entrusted.