SEA OTTER LOVE words and art by Macy Kissel
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hink of your ideal girl… thick, luscious hair…loves going out to get a bite to eat… enjoys cuddling and holding hands...cares about helping the environment…and is an aquatic member of the weasel family…perfect, right? Along the coasts of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia lives this ideal species that you might know as sea otters. A Day In the Life
Like myself on a Sunday, otters spend 11 hours a day resting and sleeping. They rarely sleep alone, rather in rafts, which happen when otters group together (can be anywhere from two to 100) and hold hands so they don’t float away from the pack. Otters don’t have to expend energy to float on their backs due to their fluffy float coat. As they need to take good care of their coats to remain waterproof and buoyant, sea otters are like your type A roommate, always cleaning. They don’t have a layer of blubber like most marine mammals, instead having a thick underfur that traps air to form an insulating layer against any chilly waters. They actually have the world’s densest fur; at its thickest, it is made up of more than a million hairs per square inch. (For reference you probably have 10,000 hairs on your head, less if you’re balding, sorry Dad). For those reasons, the pelts were extremely valuable, leading to 6
an increase in otter hunting, which put the species at near extinction. In 1977 sea otters became protected under the Endangered Species Act — and nongovernmental organizations helped support the regrowth of the population. Earth Day, Everyday
There is so much more to these aquatic balls of fluff than meets the eye. The sea otter is an aquatic environmentalist, an SJW queen. The sea otter is a keystone species, which means the health of sea otters indicates the health of other species and ecosystems nearby. They are carnivorous, munching on sea urchins and other small animals that graze on giant kelp. When urchins go unchecked, they create areas called “urchin barrens” where nothing else can live. With sea otters helping to keep the urchins under control, kelp forests can thrive and support a rich community of plants and animals. How to Eat Your Body Weight and Still be a Skinny Queen
Otters often spend their days floating in kelp forrests, diving down when they need to eat. Sea otters may hunt on the seafloor, but they always returns to the surface to eat. They even float on their backs and use their chest as a table. In estuaries, the wide mouth of streams that meet the cold ocean, sea otters keep eelgrass healthy by eating crabs, which in turn allows
THE POST GRAD GAZETTE, FEBRUARY 13, 2024
the sea slug population to thrive. Speaking of snacks, do you ever grab an extra treat to save for later? Like a half-eaten cookie on your bedside table in case you wake up hungry? Sea otters do too! An otter’s coat has pockets—loose skin under each forearm (relatable)—that allows them to stash prey during a dive, leaving their paws free to hunt some more. And if you’re worried about those extra snacks catching up to sea otters, don’t worry, sea otters have a high metabolism, meaning they can stay warm (and skinny) while eating about a quarter of their body weight each day. You would have to eat 35-40 pounds of food a day to match that. What is an article about sea otters doing in a love-themed issue?
Sea otters know about maternal love, in fact, sea otter females are some of the most incredible and caring moms. Mother otters give birth in the water and nurture their young while floating on their backs, holding their infants on their chests to nurse, groom, and eventually as a safe base while they swim and learn to hunt. Mothers often spend their entire lives with a pup. Don’t get it twisted though—while we support and love female otters, we do not stand by male sea otters. Male otters’ aggressive and downright cruel breeding practices vicitmize many of our girly otters, and have led to
