Threatened Sea Otters and their Giant Kelp Forest Habitat

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Sea Otter feasts on abalone, kelp crabs & sea urchins

Like us, otters must eat a balanced diet in order to stay healthy. Kelp forests provide an abundance of invertebrate food items for otters to eat.

Otter wraps up in kelp to keep from drifting away with the tide.

Sea Otter Eats a Sea Urchin

Purple urchins from Giant Kelp forests are full of high calorie, nutrient-rich tissues that otters love to eat. 

There is almost no nutrient or caloric value in urchins from an urchin barren because they are starving. Otters cannot successfully forage in urchin barrens.

Sea Otter mom & pup

Sea otter Truffle and her pup at the Coast Guard Jetty

Truffle eats an abalone while her pup stays safely in kelp.

Sea otter and her week-old pup sleep safely in the thick kelp canopy along the Coast Guard Pier.