Sea Otters Take Center Stage in September, Feature in USGS Podcasts and Public Lecture During Sea Otter Awareness Week

By Paul Laustsen September 2008

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Above: Tim Tinker hauls in a freshly caught sea otter off Cypress Point, south of Monterey Bay on the central California coast, April 3, 2008. The otter was examined, radio-tagged, and released as part of ongoing USGS studies of southern sea otters (see Sea Otter Studies). Listen to USGS CoreCast interviews with Tim Tinker. Photograph by Tom Suchanek, USGS. [larger version] Above: Sea otter off Santa Cruz, California, photographed by Paul Laustsen on August 21, 2008. [larger version]

It's not difficult to understand why people fall in love with California sea otters: their playful spirit and graceful aquatic maneuvering attract onlookers in droves. In August, the furry little creatures received a boost from the California State Legislature, which made a unanimous decision to declare the last week of September as Sea Otter Awareness Week throughout California.

To help celebrate the California sea otter and bring more attention to the issues surrounding its ongoing recovery from near extinction, lead sea-otter researcher Tim Tinker of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will be interviewed for a series of podcasts to air during Sea Otter Awareness Week (September 21-27). Among the topics of discussion will be the findings of the spring 2008 census of southern sea otters (see "California Sea Otters: Population Recovery Continues at Slower Rate," this issue).

The first of the Sea Otter Awareness Week podcasts will be released September 22 on the USGS CoreCast Web site, where you can also find more than 60 other podcasts about USGS science. You can even subscribe to receive e-mails when new CoreCasts are released, or automatically download them using iTunes.

In addition to the USGS CoreCasts, Tinker will give a lecture on "What We Have Learned from Spying on Sea Otters: How Scientists Use Behavioral Studies to Provide Insights into Population Status, Disease Dynamics, Food-Web Interactions, and Ecosystem Shifts" at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, California, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 24. To learn more about the lecture, visit URL http://www.defenders.org/take_action/upcoming_events/ and scroll down to click on the link "Sea Otter Lecture at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (CA)." For information about Sea Otter Awareness Week nationwide, visit URL http://www.defenders.org/seaotter/awareness/.

California Sea Otters: Population Recovery Continues at Slower Rate September 2008

Spring 2008 Mainland California Sea Otter Survey Results U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

Sea Otter Studies at WERC U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

CoreCast Web site U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

Sea Otter Awareness Week Defenders of Wildlife

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September 2008

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in this issue:

cover story:
Sea Otter Population Recovery Continues at Slower Rate

Scientists Map Arctic Sea Floor

Tribal Canoes Gather Water-Quality Data

Raising Awareness of Water-Resource Issues

Sea Otter Awareness Week

MIT Students Visit USGS

Diversity in the USGS Workforce

Kvenvolden Honored at International Conference

Community-Use "Recyclabikes"

USGS Woods Hole Welcomes Hapke

Coral Reefs of the USA

September 2008 Publications List