Bring back Oregon otters!

What did a nuclear bomb test in Alaska have to do with bringing back sea otters to the Oregon Coast? A lot!

In 1969, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission detonated a 1.2 megaton nuclear bomb underground on the Aleutian Island of Amchitka in the Bering Sea. The island is now part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife refuge, but in the 1960s it was a nuclear testing site. Go figure. 

Thousands of Canadians protested the nuclear tests. Fearing the devastation of a healthy population of 3,000+ sea otters, marine scientists scooped up 400 otters and deposited them at various sites in the Pacific Northwest, including Oregon, whose native sea otters had long disappeared due to hunting. Unfortunately, the otters brought to Oregon disappeared.

New advocacy for Oregon otters

But that hasn’t stopped conservationists from envisioning a different future. Today, Oregon’s coastal tribes and conservationists have a vision of “an Oregon coast 50 years from now where our children and grandchildren co-exist along with a thriving sea otter population and a robust marine ecosystem.” Together they’ve formed the Elakha Alliance. Elakha (ee-LAK-uh) is “otter” in Chinook trading language. Sea otters are a keystone species whose presence can restore kelp forests and marine habitats. Kelp forests also capture large amounts of carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere which can help mitigate the effects of ocean acidification and climate change.

Reintroduction of sea otters is not without controversy. Otters love Dungeness Crab which happens to be Oregon’s most valuable commercial fishery. To address these concerns, Elakha Alliance recently secured funding for an economic impact analysis to evaluate the costs / benefits of sea otter reintroduction on Oregon’s coastal communities.

Visit: Imagine otters in rocky coves at Oregon’s marine reserves at Cape Falcon off the coast of Oswald West State Park or at Cape Pepetua.