\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIt\u2019s Sea Otter Awareness Week, so KSBW wanted to look at how the Central Coast\u2019s sea otter population is doing. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, southern sea otters are considered endangered, but our local otter population appears to be stable and healthy. \u201cWe\u2019re really privileged to have a really healthy population of sea otters right along the Monterey Peninsula,\u201d said Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Otter Program Manager Jessica Fujii. The aquarium does population counts about every three months. So far, they\u2019ve been averaging about 500 sea otters across the Monterey Bay coastline. \u201cWe look for them as we walk along the path, we\u2019re always looking for them because they\u2019re so cute, tangled up in the seaweed,\u201d said Santa Cruz resident Roxy Kumagai. While the sea otter population here is looking fairly stable, there are still active threats the animals are facing. \u201cThe biggest issue we\u2019re seeing is that the source of mortality for sea otters is due to shark bite,\u201d said Fujii. \u201cThis is an unfortunate case where they\u2019re not an actual source of food for white sharks, but they\u2019re still getting bitten and end up dying from those wounds.\u201dOther dangers include diseases from harmful algae blooms, such as domoic acid poisoning. While the aquarium said human-caused factors are less of an issue, they still ask the public to exercise caution and give the animals space, especially if you’re out on the water. \u201cThe best rule of thumb is if they\u2019re looking at you, you\u2019re too close,\u201d said Fujii.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tMONTEREY, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Sea Otter Awareness Week, so KSBW wanted to look at how the Central Coast\u2019s sea otter population is doing. <\/p>\n
According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, southern sea otters are considered endangered, but our local otter population appears to be stable and healthy. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really privileged to have a really healthy population of sea otters right along the Monterey Peninsula,\u201d said Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Otter Program Manager Jessica Fujii. <\/p>\n
The aquarium does population counts about every three months. So far, they\u2019ve been averaging about 500 sea otters across the Monterey Bay coastline. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe look for them as we walk along the path, we\u2019re always looking for them because they\u2019re so cute, tangled up in the seaweed,\u201d said Santa Cruz resident Roxy Kumagai. <\/p>\n
While the sea otter population here is looking fairly stable, there are still active threats the animals are facing. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest issue we\u2019re seeing is that the source of mortality for sea otters is due to shark bite,\u201d said Fujii. \u201cThis is an unfortunate case where they\u2019re not an actual source of food for white sharks, but they\u2019re still getting bitten and end up dying from those wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other dangers include diseases from harmful algae blooms, such as domoic acid poisoning. <\/p>\n
While the aquarium said human-caused factors are less of an issue, they still ask the public to exercise caution and give the animals space, especially if you’re out on the water. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe best rule of thumb is if they\u2019re looking at you, you\u2019re too close,\u201d said Fujii. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Sea Otter Awareness Week, so KSBW wanted to look at how the Central Coast\u2019s sea otter population…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[14144,90940,106295,29372,3149,106297,106294,106293,106296,106298,79,103432,106292,8207,44672,13367,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-179022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal","9":"tag-aquarium","10":"tag-big-issue","11":"tag-concern","12":"tag-disease","13":"tag-harmful-algae-bloom","14":"tag-healthy-population","15":"tag-local-population","16":"tag-monterey-bay-aquarium","17":"tag-other-danger","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-sea-otter-awareness-week","20":"tag-sea-otter-population","21":"tag-shark","22":"tag-source","23":"tag-white-shark","24":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}