The connection is through food. After the fur trade, fewer than 1,000 Sea otters remained. What caused the loss of sea otters along the coasts of Washington State and Oregon? What is kelp and why is it important? These kinds of connections are called food chains. Sea otters are carnivorous, eating almost any fish or marine invertebrate from their kelp forest foraging area. Sea urchins greedily graze on kelp when otters are not around, but in the presence of the predators, urchins hide in crevices and eat just the plant scraps. To keep from drifting out to sea when resting and eating, sea otters may wrap themselves in kelp. In places where sea otters have disappeared, sea urchins will eat the kelp forest until it’s gone. They leave behind desolate areas called urchin barrens. Why have sea otters been compared to teddy bears? Loss of sea otters therefore can have a … Explain how the otter population in … A male sea otter is most likely to mate if he maintains a breeding territory in an area that is also favored by females. Sea otters eat most shellfish that humans like as well, including sea urchins, lobsters, and crabs. Today Sea otters can be found in nearly two-thirds of their historic range, with populations in Alaska, Washington, California, Canada, Russia, and Japan. Their prey provides most of their water but they also drink seawater when thirsty. Hopefully, sea otter populations will recover and eat enough of the urchins to save the kelp forests. The largest raft ever seen contained over 2000 sea otters. Based on their calculations, the presence of otters increased the carbon storage of kelp forests by 4.4 to 8.7 megatons—equivalent to the amount of carbon found in the annual carbon dioxide emissions from 3 to 6 million passenger cars. In the meantime, we must do what we can to protect the sea otters. A lot of sea otter research focuses on kelp. Sea urchins are related to starfish and look like small, purple hedgehogs. Urchins eat kelp, and sea otters eat sea urchins. Humans have helped otters recover. What do sea otters eat? Sea otters, sea urchins, and kelp are connected. What they found was surprising. Sea otters are the main predator of sea urchins and keep the urchin population in check. They eat sea urchins, sea stars, coast mussels, purple-hinged rock scallops limpets and chitons. How do the otters keep warm? Not only do humans harm sea otters by specifically hunting for them for their fur, but also when fishermen use fishing traps and nets, sea otters can get trapped in these and drown. They also eat crabs, squid, and octopus. They often occur between living things in …