Discussion

Sea otters, one of thirteen otter species, are distantly related to weasels and can weigh up to almost 100 pounds. Living near shores in the northern pacific ocean, they are capable of walking on land, but can spend their entire lives in the water. Sea otters feed mostly on marine invertebrates like sea urchins, mollusks, crustaceans like shrimp and crabs, and some species of fish. They are one of the very small number of tool-using mammals, using rocks to dislodge prey and open shells. I once sat on a rock jetty at Seward, Alaska and watched a sea otter floating by on its back doing exactly that just a few feet away from me.

This one is nibbling on sea urchins.

Sea otters are a major factor in keeping down the sea urchin population which would otherwise devastate kelp forests, vitally important habitats for a host of sea creatures. Once hunted close to extinction for their extraordinarily thick fur, the densest in the animal kingdom (nearly 1 million strands per square inch), the sea otter population is rebounding, but it is still considered to be endangered.

Sea otters forage for food alone, but they otherwise tend to congregate in single-sex groups called rafts. Rafts most often consist of 10 to 100 individuals, but one raft with around 2,000 otters was once seen

Sea otter pups can't swim when they are first born, though their thick fur makes them buoyant enough that they don't sink and drown. Otter moms take their pups nearly everywhere with them. When foraging for food, otter moms wrap their pups in tethered seaweed so that they don't float away while mom is away arranging for dinner.

This photo taken by the Aquarium of the Pacific a few years ago is of an expectant mom. Sea otters have flaps that seal their nose and ears when they are under water.

Sea otters don't figure much in Japanese folklore, but river otters do. Called kawauso, river otter lore varies from province to province, but the ability to take on human form is common, often for the purpose of luring men to their death.

Utagawa Hiroshige III (1842/3 - 1894), a student of Hiroshige's, painted this 1877 ukiyo-e print, Sea Otter Hunting, as part of a series of prints titled Pictures of Products and Industries of Japan.

Note the men ready to use spears in the boats.

The artist of the painting below isn't quite as famous as Hiroshige III, but some day I may be. I did this painting about eight years ago. It came out looking a bit fuzzy because of poor lighting and shooting through acrylic.