There was a sea otter around Cape Arago, Coos several years back for almost
two years Jan Hodder was telling me just a couple days ago. Another that
was in the South Slough area. Young males.
Tim Rodenkirk
Coos Bay
On Sun, Nov 21, 2021 at 4:06 PM Wayne Hoffman <whoffman@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi, Mike -
You almost certainly saw Sea Otters off Shoreacres in the 1970s. Some
were transplanted to the Cape Arago area and other places on the south
coast in the mid-1960s and persisted until the 1980 or so. They
reproduced, but the adult mortality was a few percent higher than the
reproduction rate, and they gradually died out. They were brought from
Amchitka in the Aleutians because the Defense Dept. relocated them in
preparation for an underground nuclear test, intended to assess the use of
nuclear blasts for excavating harbors, etc. Others were released on the
Olympic Peninsula coast, and have prospered.
Wayne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Patterson" <celata@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "obol" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2021 11:00:07 AM
Subject: [obol] Re: Newport Sea Otter
Does this mean we can now "officially" report sightings elsewhere on
the coast?
I will begin with the caveat that most of the "sea otters" I've seen
on the Lower Columbia were, in fact, ocean-going River Otters and the
rule of thumb is that if it comes out of the water and crawls up on
to the jetty, it is, almost certainly, not a Sea Otter. I've also seen
River Otters frolicking in the ocean at Bob's Creek (Lane Co.?).
I have absolutely no doubt that the otter Roy reports is unequivocally a
Sea Otter (if anybody on this list should know, it's him).
But I can remember all the way back into the dim late-70' when I'm
pretty sure I saw Sea Otters off Shoreacres, Coos Co. and I've seen more
than one undocumented, but likely, candidate off the South Jetty of the
Columbia in the 35 years I've been doing seawatches. My reports to
potentially interested government agencies have be met not so much
with skepticism as "we don't talk about sea otters."
So, I haven't talked about them. Neither have several other observers
I trust. We believe Lower Columbia Sea Otters are youngsters from
the North rather than California transients.
--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
I don't know...
http://www.surfbirds.com/community-blogs/northcoastdiaries/?p=3924
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