Today, I am living the life of a marine biologist. If you love the water, are enthralled by marine mammals and want a job that makes a difference — this is working the dream.

Researchers Tim Tinker and Michelle Staedler are taking me out on Monterey Bay to track and observe sea otters. Tinker is lead scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey sea otter research program in California. Staedler is the Sea Otter Research and Conservation coordinator for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

We load the boat, and then, we’re off on the chase.

Tinker drives the boat, while Staedler holds out a very high frequency receiver, waiting for the beep that tells us a study animal is nearby. We haven’t gone far, when Staedler locates otter 6-068, named for its radio-transmitter frequency. This mother otter is foraging in the local marina.

Like humans, each otter has its own favorite dives. One may prefer the crabs at the marina; another, the sea urchins up the coast.

Also like humans, some sea otters use tools to eat. In areas where otters have to compete for limited food, individuals tend to specialize.

Today we are recording the mother otter’s behavior, particularly her eating habits: how long she dives, what she brings back to the surface and whether she shares it with her pup. The logbook is precise and detailed.

No matter what the otter is doing, we keep the stopwatch running.

The mother appears at the surface, and Staedler begins scribbling. The otter has returned with a clam, one-paw width (5 centimeters), roundish. She handles it for 6 seconds, and then dips beneath the surface.

She reappears with a collection of food. Otters often use their abdomens as a tray, and they can pile it high with goodies. She chomps down on a fat innkeeper worm. She offers a morsel of something else to the pup. The pup refuses it. She dives back down to hunt for tastier fare.

“She’s keeping the good stuff for herself,” Staedler says.

Staedler records these details to help scientists understand the investment mothers make in their pups. Her records could help determine whether this investment or individual diets are the secret to success for some otters and the road to ruin for others. Researchers hope the data will shed some light on the recent rise in the mortality rate of California sea otters.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed sea otters as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The goal of the science is to support conservation of the species.

Otter 6-068 pops back to the surface with a cancer crab. Staedler notes the dive time and begins counting the handling time.

She has a reason for this stopwatch obsession. The times will help researchers align data from observations with data from instruments they implanted in the otter’s abdomen at the beginning of the study.

These devices allow the researchers to follow an otter’s every move for one to two years and to locate the animals by radio telemetry for three to five years. The team will collect data on thousands of dives. And by lining all the data up using Staedler’s carefully noted times, scientists might learn to determine the otters’ diets simply from the electronic data about their dives.

The researchers hope the data will help them track not only food patterns but also sources of contamination in the food supply.

The things we do near the coast impact otters. “Pesticides, washing your car, fertilizing your lawn — these things affect the sea otter and the habitat directly,”  Tinker says.

Many landscape features that once filtered pathogens from the water have disappeared, and sea otters face growing environmental contamination.

“We have changed the water-flow patterns with storm sewers, agriculture, loss of wetlands,” Tinker says.  “Nature’s sewer treatment — we’ve changed that drastically. Now water flows over the ground directly to the ocean.”

Sea otters are turning up with diseases found in cats and opossums. Researchers suspect they are picking up these pathogens by foraging near agricultural or urban runoff. But scientists need more information.

The task is beyond just marine biologists. To see the big picture, they need ecologists, pathologists, toxicologists, epidemiologists and others. Tinker says there are 30 scientific professions involved in the sea otter project.

“There is an atmosphere of trust,” Tinker says. “We need to recognize how important that is and make sure to maintain it.”

Concern for the animal is at the center of their alliance. The sea otter is a keystone species. Without sea otters, sea urchins thrive, and kelp forests wither. Without sea otters,  the ecosystem shifts dramatically. The sea otter is not only a keystone species; it is also a sentinel species. “It is the canary in the coal mine,” says Tinker.

That’s the driver that brings this wide variety of specialists together.

“Human-induced impacts on kelp forests, fisheries, contaminants that come from the land — there are hundreds of substances being pored into the oceans,” Tinker says. But the problem is bigger. “There are dozens of inter-related factors that threaten sea otters and other marine species,” he says.

The good news is that, despite a higher rate of mortality in recent years, the overall trend in the number of California sea otters suggests a growing population. The goal is to keep it that way and to eventually delist the species.

Staedler and Kage both spend long days in the field. “With driving, I do 12-hour field days,” Kage says, “but I just love being in the field so much it doesn’t bother me.”

For more information on sea otter studies at the USGS, visit the Sea Otter Studies Web site: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/otters/.

To listen to a podcast of Tim Tinker talking about sea otters, visit the USGS CoreCast site: http://www.usgs.gov/corecast/ and start with episode 65.