Sea otters fight global warming

This video from the USA is called The Precious Sea Otter (original narration by Randall).

From ScienceDaily:

How Sea Otters Can Reduce CO2 in the Atmosphere: Appetite for Sea Urchins Allows Kelp to Thrive

(Sep. 7, 2012) — Can an abundance of sea otters help reverse a principal cause of global warming? A new study by two UC Santa Cruz researchers suggest that a thriving sea otter population that keeps sea urchins in check will in turn allow kelp forests to prosper. The spreading kelp can absorb as much as 12 times the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere than if it were subject to ravenous sea urchins, the study finds.

The theory is outlined in a paper released online September 7, 2012 in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment by lead authors UC Santa Cruz professors Chris Wilmers and James Estes.

“Saving Otter 501” documentary is sea otter cuteness overload [Video]: here.

From LiveScience:

A sex-changing California fish is growing bigger and gobbling up more sea urchins after a decade of being protected from fishing, a new study finds.

In the Channel Islands offshore Southern California, the sheephead fish population has bounced back from overfishing since marine protected areas were established around the islands in 2002. Biologists are finding more large males and more egg-producing (larger) females.

Related articles

• Monterey Bay Aquarium: 11-year-old sea otter dies (mercurynews.com)
• Sea Otter Outsmarts Killer Whale (neatorama.com)
• Shedd Aquarium Sea Otter (An Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Survivor) Passes (chicagoist.com)
• Research to track otters’ response to seismic surveys (sanluisobispo.com)
• Watch: Tacoma sea otter solves a puzzle (seattlepi.com)
• It’s Sea Otter Awareness Week! (nationalaquarium.wordpress.com)