A sea otter at Cowell’s Beach on the westside of Santa Cruz has garnered headlines around the country for its “unusual behavior,” as described by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The otter, identified as Otter 841 by a tag on its flipper, has recently taken to climbing aboard unsuspecting people’s surfboards, resisting their pleas to move on and even aggressively staking a claim. A social media video shows the otter rolling from the top of someone’s board to the bottom after the surfer, who had crawled into the water, flipped the board over in hopes of shaking the animal loose.
Wildlife officials say the 5-year-old female southern sea otter is exhibiting “concerning and unusual behaviors” including repeatedly approaching surfers and kayakers.
“Sea otters are naturally wary of people, but this individual has been aggressively approaching people and biting surfboards,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials said. “Due to the potential public safety risk, a team from CDFW and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, trained in the capture and handling of sea otters, has attempted capture of the sea otter when conditions have been favorable since July 2.”
On Monday a crew on paddleboards and in a boat gingerly approached the otter who dined on shellfish while keeping a distance from them.
“Upon capture, the sea otter will undergo a health assessment and eventually be rehomed in a zoo or aquarium,” USFW said.
The sea otter is tagged with a radio transmitter and is being actively monitored by wildlife biologists.
“The usual method for safely capturing healthy, wild sea otters is a clandestine underwater approach,” according to Colleen Young, an environmental scientist and sea otter biologist with CDFW. “In this case, however, the water has generally been too murky for us to see the animal from below. We are adapting other capture methods to this situation but must ensure the safety of both the sea otter and the people attempting capture, which has limited our options and opportunities.”
To report a human-sea otter interaction, call the Monterey Bay Aquarium at 648.4840.
