Sea Otters in Alaska Found with Distinct Eating Behaviors, Wide Variety of Diet

A new marine life study observed that sea otters living in the northern hemisphere do not stay on the same diet, eating various foods they could collect around the environment.

However, this unusual animal activity is perceived by the citizens marine farmers in southern Alaska as a concern. The wild eating habits of the sea otters, according to the research, disrupt the balance of marine food distribution in the northern Pacific region.

Sea otters were discovered to eat anything they could get around their territories, from fish, crabs, and even shellfish. What they consume in a day becomes a quarter of total body weight, and this is enough evidence that shows how their behaviors truly impact the seafood population on the region's water bodies.

Sea Otter Eating Problem in Alaska

(Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
A sea otter sits on a chunk of ice that fell from a glacier in the Prince William Sound near Whittier, Alaska, on August 30, 2009.

What concerns people more is the current population of some of their resources, which had been protected and improved through the efforts relayed to southern Alaska since the 1960s.

Because of the continuous dietary consumption of sea otters, the significant improvements might become invalidated.

According to the latest research on the relationship between sea otters and the seafood population in the region, experts suggest that the problem could inflict more damage to the marine food resources due to the significant variances in the eating patterns of the gluttonous animals in question.

Investigating the bizarre matters in Alaska is quite difficult due to the region's extreme weather that could span year-round. The only solution that helped the authors was to wait for the country's warmest month and observe the eating habits of the sea otters from there.

The study was led by scholars from the University of Alaska collaborating with experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The examination was made possible by contributing carbon and nitrogen isotopes from the otter whiskers extracted by the US Fish and Wildlife Services.

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What Sea Otters Eat and the Balance of Seafood in Alaska

The collection of otter whiskers is part of protocols when the agency captures the animal or retrieves their carcasses from the region. Through the measurements of the whiskers, scientists could tell what foods they consume and how their dietary routine works.

In warm weather observations, the team discovered that sea otters tend to eat seafood such as sea cucumbers, snails, a variety of clams, crabs, and sea urchins. Among the choices, butter clams are what otters enjoy the most during warmer seasons.

University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences expert Nicole LaRoche, who also authored the study, explained that these eating behaviors and diet choices could vary depending on the presence of competition and the fluctuation of the prey's populations.

US Geological Survey's wildlife biology specialist Tim Tinker, who was not involved in the study, explained in a Hakai Magazine report that previous studies showed how sea otters could also change their eating behaviors relative to the growth of their regional population. The new research offers a wider perspective on how animals' diets start to diversify, TInker continued.

LaRoche and the team hope that other studies focus more on new ways to help the sea otters, the preys, and humans coexist rather than highlighting the negative relationship and other nuance initiatives that will heavily impact each of the groups involved.

The study was published in the Marine Ecology Progress Series, titled "Behavioral observations and stable isotopes reveal high individual variation and little seasonal variation in sea otter diets in Southeast Alaska."