Category: Marine mammals

Chngatux^ – Sea Otter

3 ottersThe sea otter is a creature of daily habits that consist of napping and foraging.  It forages and eats in the morning, usually taking it’s first meal in the predawn hour before sunrise.  The otter naps during mid-day and hunts and forages until sunset.  Many rest again and then forage for a third time around midnight.  It is known to voraciously clean out beach foods in an area, then move on down the coast to new areas.  It is said that the otter came to being when a brother and sister of Unangan decent threw themselves from a cliff and became otters.

Sea otters are one of the smallest sea mammals, but one of the largest members of the weasel family.  Our otters, E.I. kenyoni, inhabit waters from the Eastern Aleutians to the Oregon Coast.  Unlike most marine mammals who have dense blubber for cold protection, the sea otter’s primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur.

The presence of the otter in the ecosystem is more important than you might think.  Otters keep the population of sea floor herbivores from over population.  Especially sea urchins which graze on the lower stems of kelp often causing the death of kelp forests.  Kelp forests, although very irritating to fishermen and their boat engines, are one of the most important parts of our ecosystem.  Kelp forests absorb and capture CO2 from the air through photosynthesis, hence making the otter one of the creatures that can help impact the detrimental effects of climate change.

The otters pictured above have wrapped themselves in kelp after their afternoon foraging.  Kelp helps keep the otters in place when they are resting or sleeping.

Climate Change 2

Seal2This little fellow, probably recently weaned, beginning to shed his baby coat, is resting on the banks of a fresh water river.  This is not near the mouth of the river.  Over the past two summers we have seen this type of activity occuring; sea mammals coming into fresh water when they never have before.  At least not in the memory of our oldest citizens of 80-90 years.  There have been three young seals frequenting the river over the past couple of days.  Several weeks ago, my husband witnessed 40 sea otters on a sand bar in the river, plus numerous ones farther upstream feeding.  And last year, we witnessed score of monstrous sea lions coming up the river after salmon.  Never.  Ever.  And it is March and the indigenous plants are breaking ground.

P.S.  I forgot to mention that this is a ringed seal.  There are at least two others frequenting the river.  An earlier one spotted was sick and was eventually captured and sent to a care facility.  One other was found dead.  They are an ice associated seal normally found further north.  According to biologists due to the unfortunate lack of sea ice this winter, they are finding other places to haul out and rest.  Because of warming temperatures, they are far out of ther normal territory.  These three seem to be healthy.

Living with volcanoes.

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When you live within the Ring of Fire, you learn to live with volcanoes.  The “Ring of Fire” is a chain of volcanoes skirting the edges of the Pacific Ocean.  Containing 450+ volcanoes, it is shaped subtly like a horseshoe.  It stretches an unbelievable 25,000 miles from the southern tip of South America, along the coast of North America, including the Aleutian archipelago.  It continues through Japan and reaches down to New Zealand.

Unalaska Island’s highest elevation is Makushin Volcano, topping out at 5906 feet.  It is located approximately 15 miles west of the City of Unalaska.  It is an active volcano, with the last eruption noted in 1995.  Makushin is constantly steaming, which means it is venting…which is a good thing.  Bogoslof Island is 61 miles northwest of Unalaska Island.  Bogoslof, or Aĝasaaĝux̂, is the summit of a submarine stratovolcano located at the southern edge of the Bering Sea.  It was first recorded by non-indigenous seafarers during an eruption in 1796.  It has been erupting off and on through the years, sometimes losing terra firma and sometimes gaining.  It has become a breeding sanctuary for sea birds, seals, and sea lions.

Bogoslof began a series of eruptions in December 2016, almost daily, spewing volcanic ash clouds high into the atmosphere and sporting volcanic lightning.  Through all the fury of upheaval, the island, as of May 2017, has grown from 71.2 acres to 319 acres, or nearly 1.3 kilometers.  And what has happened to the animals that call Bogoslof home, or at least a respite?  Typically, animals are extremely adaptable.  They leave when there are explosions, swimming to nearby islands and come back when things are quiet.  The Fish and Wildlife Service has reported that even with eruptions occurring in March, marine mammals returned to birth their young.

In Unalaska we face a daunting number of issues when volcanic activity is present.  There are ash clouds and ash fallout.  Lahars and floods, pyroclastic flows, clouds, and surges.  Debris avalanches and lava flows are not so much a worry as are directed blasts, volcanic gases, and volcanic tsunamis.  If you are a resident of Unalaska, you really don’t dwell on the issue.  Unless, of course, you don’t get your mail; or your flight has been canceled because of ashfall.  When you think about it, the real danger is that we could be decimated in a matter of seconds by a pyroclastic cloud.  Or a nuclear bomb.  Volcano, bomb, bomb, volcano.  Worrying about it won’t make it go away and nothing we can do will change the outcome.  It is not a defeatist attitude.  It is part of the price we pay for living in paradise.