Lecture presented by James Bodkin, U.S. Geological Survey.
Fort Worden State Park Chapel
Port Townsend
Hosted by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.
Over the course of about 250 years, beginning about 1750, perhaps a million sea otters were harvested for their fur throughout their range. When the harvest ended 13 small populations remained, all but one along their northern range. Today more than 150,000 sea otters occupy more than half their original range. Other sea otter stories Jim will tell include their relation to the locally abundant river otter, their ecology, predators and other research on sea otters in the wild.
