by Jenni Johnson

Sea Otters

Do you think there are sea otters living here in the Puget Sound?

You may think “NO! There are no sea otters in the Puget Sound”. Well, think again… there may not be a lot of sea otters in the Puget Sound but there are some.

One reason why you might jump to the conclusion that there ore not sea otters in the Puget Sound is because they don’t live in big groups and so they ore not easy to see. The sea otters live with other sea otters especially when they are pups. While some older sea otters live together, not do and those that do may not all of the time. So it is hard to see if there are sea otters in the Puget Sound because the see otters are not in a huge clumps. The sea offers hardly ever go far off shore and if they do go off shore it is a maximum of half a mile that they would go because they don’t want to be so far away from their home and food. They spend most of their life in water. So, that makes two reasons why you might make the mistake that the sea otter does not live here in the Puget Sound.

These sea otters are carnivores but they don’t eat other mammals. The sea otter eats sea urchins, crabs, clam, oyster, abalone (a mollusk) and different types of fish. These three to four feet tall creatures (sea otters) eat about five thousand pounds of food a year. Now no one would have guessed that, now would they?

Now sea otters are great hunters thanks to their fur. Their fur keeps them warm. Little air bubbles get in the fur and that is what keeps them warm. But also they have two layers of fur one is a tall layer and one is a short layer. The short layer is the one that traps the air bubbles. If oil got on their fur the fur would be considered matted and the air bubbles wouldn’t be able to get in and the sea otter would then eventually get cold and die. But the sea otter’s fur is very thick. A matter of fact it has over one hundred thousand more hairs per square inches then a full grown dog.
Quick Facts:

• The sea otter can grow up to four foot tall, its tail can grow to be ten to fifteen inches long.
• The sea otter male can weigh up to a hundred pounds, the female can weigh up to sixty pounds
• The sea otter lives along the north west coast of America
• The sea otter eats shellfish, crab, and fish (those are the most common meals to the sea otter)
• The sea otter can live to be twenty years old