Posted by seahunt on December 11, 2002 at 18:48:50:
In Reply to: "But I don't want the otters back" Seahunt posted by Steve on December 11, 2002 at 12:02:38:
Yah, the otters would be a disaster. At least humans have size limits.
You should see all the little shells in the calm spot behind Lion Rock where the otters go to eat.
It is unreal how much they eat.
To address some points some of the other posters made.....
>Q: Have you gone diving in the Monterey Bay area and seen the life that exists there?
>A: The sea life is amazing.
Yes, but it is what noticably missing anything the otters can eat. I remember how
beautiful Monterey diving is and the fish are doing great, but a lot of life is
missing like scallops, abalone, urchins and others. In the otter areas near Morro
Bay, there is not a single purple urchin to be found. That is amazing. Red urchins
and scallops are very rare. In places, the rocks are scraped clean by their claws.
>Thus, I don't think a couple otter families are going to all of sudden devour
>all the urchin, abs, and starfish in SoCal.
Well, they did in the Morro Bay area. Go look for yourself.
>We musn't loose sight of the fact that when otters were here, they and their
>food source coexisted at a greater historical abundance than we have ever
>known.....
No, That's a myth. The middens with the abalone shells, etc. were from after the
otters were gone. Before that, the middens had very little in the way of shellfish
in them.
>Here is something to think about. Did you know that if an urchine fishermen sees
>an otter south a prescribed geographical line (don't know the exact place) they
>call the DFG and they have to relocate it. In other words, the foreign (asian)
>market place determins the distrobution of otters along OUR coast!
BS actually. The law says that they must relocate them, but some of them died so
they said that they couldn't relocate them. An easy way to cheat the law that I
doubt they ever intended to honor.
>I do believe that otters should not be relocated to an area that is not abundant
>enough to support them in the lifestyle they are acustomed to.
Yah, like Morro Bay, Pismo, Montange De Oro, Cayucus and Big Sur were like before
the otters got there. Now they live in their natural state of near starvation.
>Long live the otters!
>Brad
>(has actually seen them at Nic)
I haven't seen them there.
Look, I'll put it simply this way. Otters are many times as destructive to the
reef life as humans are. They are cute, furry ecological disasters. Go look for yourself where
the otters are.
Enjoy the diving, seahunt