Paddling places with sea otters

Advice
#21

Rub it in!
I love your photo of the sea lion snuggling up to you on the stern deck.

#22

Funny, though not to the otter
River otters are cool, too. When I was a kid we went to a small zoo that had river otters in a display where you could see them playing underwater.



I have seen river otters once, on Yellowstone Lake: papa, mama, and baby together.

#23

Sea Otters
Southeast Alaska’s outer coast, the lower half of Chatham Strait, Icy Strait and Cross Sound are great places to see sea otters.



My favorite place is Tebenkof Bay on Kuiu Island. We came through there a few years ago and saw more than fifty otters in one place.




#24

It’s true chuck smells like bad …
tuna … sea creatures love him.

#25

Paddled the Maine coast
for 10 years, including Casco Bay around Brunswick–never saw a sea otter but have seen lots of seals–thought sea otters were a Pacific creature

#26

Elkhorn Slough Sea Otters

– Last Updated: Jan-10-11 5:28 PM EST –

I have counted over 50 Sea Otters at Elk Horn Slough in one afternoon. Its a very protected paddling area. As long as you do not pass out beyond the jetties. You will be paddling into the wind on the way back in the afternoon, so save some energy for the paddle back.

Sea Otters are not like Seals, and Sea Lion. They are not insulated by blubber. They are insulated by their fur, and need to come to the surface to dry it out periodically. If you disturb them while they are drying out, and they dive, they can get hypothermia. Please keep a distance from them, and do not make them dive.

Interesting story about the California Sea Otters. They were actually thought to be extinct at one time. Mostly because the local Abalone divers shot them because they eat Abalone.

Turns out a colony survived down in the Big Sur, in a cove so remote no one saw them for a couple decades.

The population has recovered to the point that you will see them more often than not when paddling Monterrey Bay

#27

See link
http://mainenaturephotos.blogspot.com/2008/01/first-for-everything.html



Maybe it was a river otter as opposed to a sea otter, but trust me, it was an otter. It was in salt water and therefore I assumed it was a sea otter.