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Sea Otter

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James Navarro

Highlights from Sea Otter Awareness Week 2006

Sea Otter Awareness Week 2006 was a tremendous success with participation from organizations, zoos, aquariums, schools, researchers, and others, as well as a large number of events and activities spanning from San Francisco to Ventura. 2006 marked the first time that institutions and agencies in Alaska participated in Sea Otter Awareness week events. The Alaska SeaLife Center had a daily National Park Service presentation on sea otters, coloring and fact sheets for the kids and an informational booth on the Center’s research and rehabilitation of sea otters. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in collaboration with the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve hosted several Sea Otter Awareness Week events at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center in Homer, Alaska. Our international outreach efforts specifically targeted participation from zoos and aquariums throughout North America, Canada and Europe.

In 2006, we also had a surge of support from elected officials! Twelve California mayors officially proclaimed Sea Otter Awareness Week in their cities as did three County Board of Supervisors.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco
Mayor Cynthia Matthews, Santa Cruz
Mayor Dan Albert, Monterey
Mayor Ila Mettee-McCutchon. Marina
Mayor Janice Peters, Morro Bay
Mayor Marty Blum, Santa Barbara
Mayor Carl Morehouse, San Buenaventura
Mayor Dan Cort, Pacific Grove
Mayor Anna Caballero, Salinas
Mayor Dave Pendergrass, Sand City
Mayor Ralph Rubio, Seaside
Mayor Antonio Rivas, Watsonville
Monterey County Board of Supervisors
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors Mayor Sue McCloud, Carmel – Put Sea Otter Awareness Week on Agenda and accepted a 5-minute presentation by Defenders of Wildlife

In addition, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Barbara Boxer and Congresswoman Capps sent letters of support; Congressman Sam Farr introduced a letter of support into the Congressional Record; and Assemblyman John Laird secured a continuing State Assembly Resolution.

In California, several Sea Otter Awareness Week events were held along the Central Coast. Free public lectures included the following presenters and topics:

Dr. Patricia Conrad, Toxoplasma, Sea Otters and the Land-Sea Connection, Seymour Marine Discovery
Milos Radakovich, Southern Sea Otters and their Aquatic Neighbors, Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History
Andy Johnson, Zoological Programs for Sea Otters and Dr. Jim Estes, Science, Society, and Sea Otter Conservation, Monterey Bay Aquarium auditorium
Dr. Melissa Miller, Turds, Birds and Otter Herds: True Tales from the ‘Sexy Life’ of A State Wildlife Pathologist, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Greg Sanders, biologist and former Sea Otter Recovery Coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sea Otters in Your Backyard, Santa Barbara Public Library

There were also showings of a film produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, Precipice of Survival: The Southern Sea Otter, which traces the history of sea otters since the onset of the maritime fur trade in the mid-1700s at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Coyote Point Museum, Watershed Resource Center of Santa Barbara, and Channel Islands National Park Visitors’ Center. The film relates how central California’s threatened southern sea otter is now the focus of unprecedented study by a unique team of scientists from agencies including U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Game, University of California, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and others.

In Santa Barbara, Defenders kicked off Sea Otter Awareness Week by participating in the annual Sandcastle Festival. Additionally, there was an interactive sea otter storytelling session for children and their families as well as a special sea otter diet display at the Ty Warner Sea Center.

The following aquariums, zoos, and marine institutions celebrated Sea Otter Awareness Week 2006 through various types of recognition, displays, and information tables: