Curator’s Choice: CaliforniaSea Otter

September 21–27 is Sea Otter Awareness Week. Were you aware that a California Sea Otter’s teeth can turn purple from eating urchins? This skull clearly shows how the animal provided a helpful service to the kelp forest. When there are too many urchins, the urchins can eat all the available kelp, which can negatively affect a lot of species (including humans, who rely on kelp forests to produce a variety of seafood). Otters keep urchin populations in check, thus reducing what are called urchin barrens or urchin deserts. A California Sea Otter has to eat 25% of its body weight in a day, so that can add up to a lot of urchins! This skull is among the 44,000+ specimens curated by the Museum’s Department of Vertebrate Zoology, overseen by Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Krista Fahy, PhD. 

Did you know that every Sunday through the fall at the Sea Center on Stearn’s Wharf, from 11:30–11:45 am we will be offering a Shark Sunday interpretive talk by a local naturalist while an aquarist feeds the sharks.