People who harvested shellfish for a living blame sea otters for eating too many clams and abalone. It's true that sea otters eat a lot of shellfish, however, recent studies show that there a fewer shellfish all along the California coast----even in places where there are no sea otters! This suggests that it is people who are taking too many shellfish----not sea otters.
Sea otters always float on their backs while eating. As soon as they've finished a meal, they roll over a few times to wash off bits of shell, food scraps, and fish slime. Rolling in the water also helps keep the food from getting stuck in their fur.
Food habitat: Rocky coves and kelp forests.
You might ask yourself what is kelp?
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Kelp is a type of seaweed that grows really fast and gets very tall. Kelp also provides homes for many types of sea creatures. Sea otters help kelp kelp grow by eating its greatest enemy, sea urchins. Urchins devour kelp very quickly, so with sea otters around, the urchin population is kept low so the kelp forests can grow.
Kelp harvesting is a huge industry. Kelp tops are turned into a powder called alginate.
Alginate is a thickener in products such as.....
1.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
You guess it if you said Ice Cream
2. Another is....
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
