Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) Sighted in the Haro Strait

Dictation by Phoebe Okey-Dobie to voice recognition using the LEO Reporter App:

My brother and I were out on Island View Beach camping and we decided to go to the ocean and then we saw something that looked familiar that we had seen in certain books--a sea otter. It had a white blond head and its two feet sticking out. Then it dove in and we saw it come up about 10 ft further into the ocean about 10 seconds later. I can be sure that this was a sea otter and yeah. It rolled up when when it goes down it rolled over and just dove down and then it got back up and it went back on its back with its tummy to the sky and it was just you know having a great time out on the ocean, but then saw me and it started kind of drifting up the shore and then we saw its head getting further and further away, but I can be sure that it was a sea otter.

Dictation by Theo Okolowicz to voice recognition using the LEO Reporter App:

So me and my sister Phoebe were like on this little island thing and then my big sister said hey look over there. There's a sea otter. And then when we looked and I just saw its head just like poking out of the water, and then we ran back to tell my dad about this and then he was like, "Really? Oh my God!" It was fun!

Editors Note: Punctuation was added and repetitive words and phrases deleted in the Children's voice recognition transcripts, for readability.

Tom Okey wrote:

We have gone camping at Island View Beach a few times this spring looking for more signs of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) because of the compelling evidence that at least one individual has been feeding on bivalves and chitons at this beach, or just offshore of this beach, as described on this separate LEO Network post. Sea otters have been extirpated from the Salish Sea for over a century by the Russian-driven sea otter fur trade from 1741-1911 when the overall population in the north Pacific was reduced by over 99%. They have been rebuilding slowly and re-occupying parts of their range, particularly after some re-introductions during the early 1970s, when they first re-occupied the northwestern corner of Vancouver Island in and near Kyuquot Sound. During the last couple of years, individuals have been observed near Sooke, Victoria, and Quadra Island in the Salish Sea. The present observation by my children, ages 12 and 7, combined with our collections of recently sea otter-cracked bivalve shell record about 100 m north of this observation, is evidence of their re-occupation of the southwestern Strait of Georgia in the Salish Sea.

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