Sea otter, eating abalone, Point Lobos, CA Copyright © 1997, Don Baccus (donb@rational.com)
All images copyright © 1997, Don Baccus
Let's face it - everyone who visits the Monterey area hopes to see sea
otters. I'm no different than anyone else, and of course on my trip
to the area in October, 1997 I also hoped to be able to photograph them.
My last visit to this part of the California coast was in 1979, and to
be honest I had no idea how well their numbers had rebounded in the
intervening years.
In short, they're EVERYWHERE!
This didn't stop me from managing to miss them on my first day, though!
I spent that day scouting the area, mostly for birds to photograph, but looking sidewise for otters, as well. Later that evening, walking along the waterfront park in Pacific Grove, I saw at least a dozen, floating on their backs in the kelp. Too far offshore to photograph, but still easy to see.
After that jolt of awareness, I realized they can be seen almost anywhere
the kelp forest is well developed.
Sea otters have no blubber layer, unlike cetaceans and pinnipeds, and
rely entirely on their thick fur's ability to trap air for insulation.
This fur has long been prized by furriers, and sea otters were nearly
extirpated from the Pacific coast of the "lower 48" as a result.
A small population survived, however, and after full protection was
afforded them their numbers slowly rebounded. Today, about 2,000
of them live off of the California coast.
From a boat or sea kayak, photographing sea otters would be easy, but
my one day on a boat was spent
looking for whales.
From shore, it's
much more difficult as they tend to be too far away.
I found the otter featured on this page off the northern shore of Point Lobos, and after shooting and observing this guy for awhile decided they should perhaps be called "sea pigs"! It found and devoured two large abalone in the space of about twenty minutes, taking about five minutes to munch each down after repeatedly diving in search of them.
So, the good news is that it can be done. The bad news is that I shot these photos with my 600/4 and 2x teleconverter!