Elizabeth and Marjorie spent the afternoon observing a raft of sea otters that ranged in size from 24 - 33 animals. We were observing from the West parking lot at Moss Landing harbor. The otters were located between the port and starboard Channel markers. An interesting anecdotal observation was that a large proportion of the raft moved 'en masse' for no apparent reason. However, within a few moments of this movement, a speedboat and on another occasion a kayaker who was moving across the area at a fast pace, were determined to be the cause of this movement.

Since the tide was ebbing, the group kept floating toward the main channel. Then, when they reached a 'critical point' the group would back paddle until the reached the more sheltered area away from the channel. The thing that was interesting to note in these episodes was that they seemed to be back paddling to return to their former location, would groom for a bit and then settle in to resting behavior.

During the first three hours of our observation the otters were resting and grooming except for a frollicking playful pair. During the last hour the 49 sea otters in the area congealed together into a large loose raft. Of note, at no time during this observation did any of the otters forage.

In the area were two harbor seals, who sometimes intermingled with the sea otters. They were tail slapping around the group. However, when they were in the group of sea otters they politely did not do this maneuver to disrupt the raft.

Throughout the entire observation, there were always at least two playing otters cavorting around, through and within the raft. They interacted with several resting otters in the raft, but these attempts to engage others in their play were fruitless or limited to short duration.

Also observed was one adult sporting a red mesh net around its middle. It didn't appear to be under duress, so it could have been substituting this netting for its more favored sea kelp.

Marjorie and Elizabeth