Sea otters are fantastic environment guardians that have adapted to the biggest oceans on earth and protecting our kelp forests everyday to help them stay green and healthy . They are a species of otters that are special from the others, not because they look so different and but because...they are an endangered species of otters. They are not that endangered though but still marked as threatened currently. We can say that the Japanese Otter (Lutra Nippon) has sadly, officially been marked as extinct from Pouching, Net Entanglement and Pollution. This might affect more Sea Otters in the future so go and make changes for our Crystal Teal Ocean. Though right now, the population of South central and East southern alaska otters seems to be growing slowly and yet... slowly but still growing every day, this is unfortunate for southwestern sea otter because they are still listed threatened and not growing yet, but help is possible if we make better choices with the oceans in our own responsibility for the world.
Humans are responsible for this, human actions such as climate change, pollution, oil leaks and illegal pouching in areas like Russia for trading with their fur, because of this sea otters are much more rarer than ever in modern human history and the kelp forests weep for care now because of this. Once their estimated population was 150,000--300,000 but now around 100,000 normal sea otters because of a 1911 population crash, after only 2,000 otters were reported to be saw and was driven near extinction. The southern otters got especially hit because now there are now only 3,000 southern otters living right now around the Californian coast and the gulf of Mexico (gulf of America). Most of their common threats are Killer whales (Orcas), Sharks (such as Great White Sharks), Eagles (Most commonly tries to get pups) and bears. Sadly, sea otters are becoming rarer this might affect some food chains and lead to a whole food web being splat away from existence and can affect way way more than known and might lead for humans hunger droughts. To help these amazing creatures, we can try to recycle more and use more electric things, eg electric cars. These guardians should have never experienced this in modern human history and should've stayed perfect with population as back then but human action has really hurt them and the better future we have, the better ocean we and they will have together.
Watch this informational video to learn more.
This video is here for kids to learn about sea otters.