The Return of the Sea Otter by Todd McLeish

3 Stars

'd always dreamed of being an otter in my next life. Good news, still a good plan. Bad news, not as easy as I thought.

First, great white sharks have to be stupid. Pretty sure thinking about what they're going to bite is not high on their list of things to do. Just like people, sea otters are given one taste and spit out by great whites. Not yummy seal. Which means that if I wanted to be a California sea otter that I'd have a 30% chance of death by great white chomp. *sigh* Might explain the weird dreams I have.

But choosing to be further north along the coast in Washington, British Columbia, Alaska through the Aleutian Islands is fraught with different perils. Everything from killer whales, to getting shot by irate people, to disease from various chemicals in runoff, and species' jumping infections makes the chomp-chomp, death by great white seem not great, but could be worse. Plus the idea of being a kelp forest guardian sounds pretty awesome.

McLeish covers the whole Pacific range. The near extinction and recovery in different regions. The stress between humans and animals, the interaction between plants and animals in the food web and the otter's place as apex predator and how it's near eradication due to the fur trade affected ecosystems. Solid information that's provided in an accessible manner with enough data to give laypeople an understanding without swimming in numbers.

Why I want to be a sea otter:

As we looked down into the glassy water, it appeared as if we were peering down from the canopy of a liquid forest, which we sort of were. Great egrets and double-crested cormorants perched warily on some of the studier branches, while sea lions and seals surfaced repeatedly in all directions. Almost everywhere we turned, we saw long chains of sales--tiny jellyfish-like creatures that look somewhat like clear caterpillars were visible an arm's reach below the surface. Occasionally we saw a school of herring or small salmon darting by, and solitary kelp rockfish could often be seen pausing motionless for long moments at a time, as if they thought they were well camouflaged.

AND all the seafood!