Sea Otter Spotted in Estuary

Bay Area diver Matt Peterson saw an unusual sight last night on the docks at Alameda Marina last night. "In all my years of working and sailing on the Bay, I’ve never seen one of these guys here before," he says of the sea otter.

At first Peterson was worried the critter might be injured or ill, but after he snapped this pic, the otter ambled to the edge, jumped in and casually swam away. "Wouldn’t it be great if they were reestablishing their range here?" he asks. 

Once prolific on San Francisco Bay, sea otters were hunted to near-extinction on the Bay in a short five-year period in the 19th Century. The good news is that, while the California population of these mammals hasn’t exactly rebounded, it is slowly increasing. Unfortunately, sea otters are highly susceptible to a disease spread by cat feces, and lately sharks seem more interested in them than normal for some reason — sharks don’t typically eat otters. But a U.S. Geological Survey released last August shows a 1.5% increase in the California population since 2010.

We’ve only spotted a couple of sea otters on the Bay over the last several years. But we did see a whale in The Slot last weekend. If you catch a snapshot of a sea otter or another marine mammal in Bay waters, we’d love to see it. Send it to LaDonna.