Sea otter steals surfboards and surfs in California – 07/14/2023 – Environment

In recent summers, several surfers in Santa Cruz have been victims of a crime at sea: the theft of their boards. The culprit is a female sea otter who accosts surfers, stealing their surfboards in the process and sometimes damaging them.

After a weekend in which the otter’s behavior seemed to have become even more aggressive, on Monday authorities responsible for the fauna and flora of the region announced the decision to put an end to the thefts committed by the otter.

“Due to the increased risk to public safety, a team from the California Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (CFDW) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, trained in capturing and handling sea otters, was dispatched to try to capture the otter and resettle it,” a CFDW spokeswoman said in a press release.

Local authorities call the animal Otter 841 (Otter 841). The 5-year-old female is known for her daring behavior and her ability to perform the hang 10 surf maneuver. And she has a tragic past. Now authorities are being forced to take measures that illustrate how the human desire to get close to wild animals can cost animals their freedom or, even worse, their lives.

California sea otters, known as southern sea otters, are an endangered species found exclusively on the central coast of California. In the past, hundreds of thousands of these otters lived in the state’s coastal waters, helping to keep kelp kelp forests healthy by consuming sea urchins. But when the West Coast of the United States was colonized, the species was hunted to near extinction, until hunting was banned in 1911.

Today there are about 3,000 otters left. Many of them live in areas frequented by surfers, paddleboarders and people in kayaks.

Despite this close proximity, interactions between sea otters and humans are still rare. Animals are innately afraid of humans and generally do whatever they can to avoid them, said ecologist Tim Tinker of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has studied marine mammals for decades. A sea otter approaching a human “is not normal,” he said, “but just because it’s not normal doesn’t mean it never happens.”

Otters have been known to approach humans at times of hormonal surges that coincide with pregnancy or as a result of being repeatedly fed or approached by humans. That’s probably what happened to Otter 841’s mother.

She was orphaned and raised in captivity. But after being released into the wild, humans started offering her squid and she got used to it in no time. She was transferred again when she started climbing into kayaks in search of food. She ended up arriving at the Center for Research and Veterinary Care of Marine Animals, in Santa Cruz, where it didn’t take long for researchers to realize that she was pregnant. It was while in captivity again that she gave birth to Otter 841.

The calf was raised by her mother until she was weaned and then transferred to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. To bolster her chances of survival after being released into the sea, her caretakers took steps to prevent 841 from forming positive associations with humans, including wearing masks and ponchos that concealed her appearance when they were with her.

But 841 quickly lost its fear of humans, although local experts can’t explain exactly why.

“After a year of living in the sea without problems, we started to hear reports about her interactions with surfers, kayakers and paddleboarders,” said Jessica Fujii, manager of the sea otter program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. “We don’t know why this started. We don’t have any evidence that she was fed. But this behavior of hers has continued over the summer for the past two or three years.”

Otter 841 was observed for the first time boarding a vessel in Santa Cruz in 2021. At first, the behavior was exceptional, but over time the otter became more daring. Last weekend, she was observed stealing surfboards on three separate occasions.

On Monday, software engineer Joon Lee, 40, was surfing Steamer Lane, a hot spot for surfers in Santa Fe, when 841 approached his board.

“I tried to pull away, but I couldn’t get very far before she bit off the cord that held the board to my ankle,” he said.

Lee abandoned his board and watched, shocked, as the otter climbed over the piece and proceeded to tear off pieces of it with its powerful jaws.

“I tried to get her off by turning the board and pushing her away, but she was pinned to my board for some reason and wouldn’t stop attacking,” he said.

Situations like these are extremely dangerous, said Gena Bentall, director and senior scientist at Sea Otter Savvy, an organization that works to reduce human disturbance to sea otters and to promote responsible observation of marine wildlife. “Otters have sharp teeth and jaws that are strong enough to crush mussels.”

Contact with humans is also dangerous for otters. If a human was bitten, the state would have no option but to euthanize the animal. And with so few sea otters left, the loss of even one individual makes it difficult for the species to recover.

If authorities manage to capture 841, she will be taken back to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and then transferred to another aquarium, where she will spend the rest of her life. Her captors have a tough job ahead of them. Several capture attempts have been made, all failed.

“She is showing talent to run away from us,” said Fujii.

^{Translated by Clara Allain}