‘Colossal’ Raft Of Sea Otters Spotted Off Hoh Head
UDPATED: 8:40 A.M. JULY 20, 2016
Sea otters are rebounding off the Washington Coast, but this is kinda crazy.
An aerial survey in late June turned up a staggering number rafted up off the Olympic Peninsula — 687, according to a state biologist’s count off an aerial photo.
(STEVE JEFFRIES, WDFW)
They were lounging in open water a mile or so offshore and south of Hoh Head, near the mouth of the Hoh River, for three days.
“I think it’s the biggest raft we’ve seen in Washington,” says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Deanna Lynch, who quickly corrected herself to say, “Matter of fact, I know it’s the largest raft we’ve seen in Washington.”
In an email that found its way to Northwest Sportsman, WDFW biologist Steve Jeffries said it was the largest he’s seen in surveying all the way back to the late 1970s.
Lynch says that during annual early summer survey’s since 1989, they’ve seen up to 300 or 400 near Destruction Island, but those have all been juvenile males.
What makes this “colossal” raft so unusual is that it included females and pups.
“We rarely see them comingled,” Lynch says.
So … why were there so many together?
“We have no idea,” admits Lynch. “We were all flabbergasted.”
What makes it odder is that ground counters tallied typical numbers in other waters off the peninsula, she says.
Sea otters, which technically are overgrown saltwater weasels, primarily eat crabs, clams, urchins, even octopus — “anything they can pry off,” Lynch says.
According to Jeffries, this particular spot is “a razor clam and Dungeness crab hot spot.”
Rapidly building numbers in Vancouver Island have caused concern for shellfish harvesters. Stories we’ve run on the fishing there have used the term overabundant to describe sea otter numbers.
“Razor clams are big. If the population expands in any great numbers farther south, I think it will become an issue,” Lynch told OPB for a 2009 story. “The crab may be an issue, although nobody has really said anything about that currently.”
Responding to our Facebook post on this, reader Keith Paddock posited, “It would be nice to see them make it around the corner, into the Straits and back in the San Juans and Puget Sound. Help thin out the urchins, which in turn develops more kelp beds and creates more habitat for forage fish and a healthier ecosystem.”
According to WDFW, the growth of the state’s sea otter population appears to be slowing.
You want to say that summer 2016 is a return to normal after the hell that was 2015, but then something like 687 sea otters kegged up in a raft off the Washington Coast makes you wonder.
But maybe that — and the whales in the Straits and Columbia mouth — are a good sign that once again there’s lots to eat.
Originally published at nwsportsmanmag.com on July 19, 2016.
