one happy otter

 

Do you like going to a zoo? or an aquarium?

I used to enjoy going to those places until this one day many years ago. My then-boyfriend (who's now my husband) and I visited a zoo in Northwest. Everything seemed like a normal zoo--families and people just enjoying their time watching the animals. But we didn't feel the same enjoyment. As soon as we got in, after watching some birds locked inside the barricades, we both started feeling down and even sad. Whatever happened to us or taught us throughout our lives made us empathize with the animals. The breaking point was when we were passing through the gorilla site. People were taking photos of the gorillas (with the flashes on), and it made one of the gorillas get extremely agitated. He roared like thunder and started pounding the glass! I was so scared that he might break the glass. On the other hand, people thought it was even more of a  camera-worthy moment. They took photos (still with the flashes on) and laughed at the extremely upset, roaring gorilla. I was so devastated. We left immediately and haven't been excited for zoos ever since. 

Then I learned that there are also some places devoted to restoring and preserving wildlife while educating the public, rather than just captivating animals for monetary profit in which thereof lacking the care and respect for the animals. The first place I learned about was the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park in Florida, then the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.  

I learned about the aquarium when I received an eye-catching article from Atlas Obscura in my inbox: “Otter-ly Adorable Climate Change Warriors May Save California’s Coastal Ecosystems.” Opening the email led me down a rabbit hole of reading different articles, watching videos of sea otters, and going on a five-hour-long road trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

One happy otter spotted at Lover's Point

Below are some of the interesting things I learned about sea otters:

Sea otters thrived from Alaska to California for thousands of years until the excessive fur trading in the 19th century drove them to near extinction. That didn’t just mean we were losing the cute (if not the cutest) sea mammals. It also meant a massive threat to the coastal habitats, which is crucial in preserving biodiversity and slowing down global warming. Thankfully, the otter world did not end. About 50 sea otters survived the massacre off the coast in California and served as a seed bank to preserve the species. Another silver lining was that while some humans massacred the sea mammals, others decided to fight for their conservation. In 1977, sea otters obtained legal protection through the Endangered Species Act. In 2002, Monterey Bay Aquarium launched the Sea Otter Program. The program rescues orphaned pups and matches them with surrogate mom otters (non-releasable female sea otters housed at the aquarium). With unceasing maternal instinct and ingenuity, the surrogate moms teach the young essential life skills such as grooming, floating, and eating. When the pups are deemed ready, they are released to the wild and monitored to ensure their prolonged well-being. These arduous collective efforts have brought California sea otter population growth to about 3,000 (bumping their status to endangered species). 

This California sea otter survival story is fascinating, but it bears much more meaning under the surface–quite literally. Stable otter population is a key to conserving coastal kelp forest and seagrass, which are part of the blue carbon ecosystems. Sea otters–predators to purple urchins and crabs–happen to be kelp forest and seagrass rangers by keeping their prey under control. While the sea otter population plummeted, the number of purple urchins increased as much as 10,000% in some parts of the West Coast in recent years. Swarming purple urchins overgrazed kelp, resulting in 95% of kelp forest loss in California. The loss of kelp forest means the loss of habitat for fishes (threatening the ecosystem and biodiversity) and carbon sequestration from water. The amount of eelgrass in Elkhorn Slough in Monterey Bay increased to 600% in the last 30 years since the restoration of the otter population. Sea slugs clean up the algae on eelgrass–enabling better absorption of sunlight. By munching on crabs, sea otters keep the slug predators at bay. Seagrass locks up more carbon per hectare per year than do tropical forests and removes carbon dioxide up to 10 times faster than terrestrial systems on a per-area basis. The marshes also serve as a buffer for rising sea levels and storms, protecting the coastal communities. 

Otter-ly fascinating and amazing, isn't it? I couldn't have appreciated sea otters more after getting to know their role in this world a bit better. It just proves that we're all connected and we are a ripple effect to one another. So I had to ask myself:

 "Then what's my role in this mysteriously and wonderfully designed ecosystem?" 

While animal and plant species like sea otters and kelp forests have their mysterious ways of restoring the environment, we human species have a role to play. If the planet continues to get hotter, there will be no animal heroes, plant species will not survive, and the ecosystem will collapse. We simply can't afford to just be an audience and give these heroes a round of applause while we continue on our days as usual. The world all around us tells us every waking day that we can't live as usual or do business as usual. Sounds overwhelming, doesn't it? 

I do feel let down and helpless many times a day. I just have to pick myself up because there are precious living beings who are at the expense of our actions.

Seals napping at the Elkhorn Slough

Foggy view at the Elkhorn Slough

The trail at the Elkhorn Slough

I just have to remind myself that I'm not alone in this fight and that I have more power than I think. We all have the power to use what we already have to raise awareness, voice our concerns, and demand changes. We all can use our voices and our talents for the cause we care about. But first and foremost, let's start from the first step: start assessing our daily consumptions and ask these questions: 

"Do I really need this?"

"Where does this come from, and where does it go?"

Toilet papers, paper cups, plastic wrappers, water, energy, gasoline, pills, batteries, etc. In the case of consumption, "out of sight, out of mind" is not the answer. Also, anything that may come as "free" is also not actually "free." Everything costs the earth to produce and to dispose of anything. With that in mind, we have to start asking when we grab something.

Companies are so quick to produce something and make you think you "need" this-and-that to live an eco-friendly lifestyle. Don't be deceived. The point is to REDUCE our consumption, to REUSE when we can, and to CHOOSE something eco-friendly (least harmful to the environment during the products' entire lifecycle: sourcing, manufacturing, transporting, in-use, and after disposed of.  

I used to get battered by helplessness and frustrations, but hey, you're not alone! Well, when I do feel alone in this fight, I think of that one happy otter we spotted in Monterey Bay, and it just makes me keep going. Let's just start from within ourselves and it will guide us to the next step.