[00:00:00] Speaker A: Learn how to support the Rewild Algae Podcast and sign up for the
[email protected] support the show the Oregon coast's wild beauty hides a crucial void the absence of sea otters. Haunted to local extinction over a century ago, their disappearance unraveled the balance of the marine ecosystem.
But what if bringing them back could revive kelp forests and restore resilience to these waters?
Welcome back to rewildology, the nature podcast that explores the human side of conservation, travel and rewilding the planet. I'm your host Brooke Mitchell, conservation biologist and adventure traveler.
In today's episode, we're exploring the effort to bring sea otters back to Oregon with Chanel Hassan, Director of Outreach and Community Relations at Alaka Alliance.
Chanel's journey from marine biologist to community leader is as inspiring as it is unconventional.
From training sea lions and competing in Ms. Scuba to manifesting her dream job, Chanel's passion for ocean conservation helps drive Alaka Alliance's mission to restore sea otters to the historical range.
In this conversation we discuss the ecological importance of sea otters, when and how they were extirpated for much of the region during the fur trade era, the challenges posed by urchin barons, and how Alaka is working with tribes, federal and state government representatives, scientists and local communities to make reintroduction a reality. You'll walk away from this conversation with a deeper understanding of the delicate balance within marine ecosystems and the vital role apex predators play in maintaining ecosystem health.
Before we dive in, I want to thank today's sponsor, Sea Turtles spelled S E E Turtles Sea Turtles connects people with sea turtles in meaningful and impactful ways while supporting community based conservation efforts. Their work aligns with the heart of Rewadology and I'm thrilled to have them as a sponsor. They're Oregon based, as with today's featured organization, alaka, and they strive every day to restore marine biodiversity.
If you're inspired by this conversation and want to take action, check out seaturtles.org rewild to learn five ways you can help marine ecosystems from joining a conservation trip to saving a baby turtle and even fighting the illegal trade. Plus, Rewild Algae listeners can get $50 off a conservation trip by using the promo code REWILD.
All right everyone, let's jump in. Here is my inspiring and thoughtful conversation with Chanel from the Alaka Alliance.
Well, hi Chanel. Thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with me today. And the very last day of 2024 is when we're sitting down and recording this. So 2025 is going to be a big year for all of us. I can totally feel it. So let's start from the very beginning to understand how you got to alaka and sea otters and all this amazing stuff you're doing, because, wow, your journey is so fascinating. Like what? When you told me it last time. So, yeah, just explore that with me right now. And everybody listening. How did you get to today?
[00:03:52] Speaker B: So, fun story.
When I went to SeaWorld when I was five, like many young kids, I fell in love with the ocean and all those critters in there and was like, I want to be a marine biologist. I want to train the marine mammals.
And so that's exactly that passion stayed my whole entire life. And so when I went to college, I went to Cal State Monterey Bay and studied environmental science, technology and policy with a focus in marine and coastal ecology. And so I volunteered at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the sea otters and the river otters when they used to have them. And our mascot was the otter. The sea otter too. So it's like this role of sea otters are constant throughout my life. And I studied abroad in Australia, where I got to do marine science research on the Great Barrier Reef, which was a dream of mine. And that was really fantastic and beautiful and one of the best night skies when I was snorkeling one night on Heron Island. It was unreal. And then, let's see, from there I graduated, moved back to la, where I was from, and got totally random odd jobs. Obviously not a lot of marine science jobs in la, but I was randomly the director of operations for the California Philharmonica Orchestra, which I am not musically talented, so I don't know how that happened. But from there, there was this job called the Best Job in the World contest in Australia. So out of 500,000 tense to be a wildlife caretaker in South Australia, I wound up being in the top 25. So I did all this social media and marketing outreach and rented this giant kangaroo costume and ran around California and picked up Compton Creek with the fraternity and went to SeaWorld and fed sea turtles dressed as a kangaroo, which nobody else has done before. And unfortunately, I didn't make it in the top three. But all that social media hoopla got me an email from somebody who was Miss Scuba USA in 2012. And she's like, hey, you would be a great advocate and person for ocean conservation representing the US in a scuba diving beauty pageant. And I was like, what is this real? And so I was like, you know, Heck, why not? So I applied, I got it. And I did a lot of self fundraising through silent auctions in LA and in Monterey Bay. Raised money to help me get to Malaysia. And I went to Malaysia for two weeks and competed at the Miskuba International Beauty Pageant. And so I was the only marine biologist there and the only rescue certified diver. And everybody else was pretty much a model or, you know, a pageant woman, so. Or an actress. So I was like, what am I doing? I don't like wearing heels at all.
But there was some really beautiful diving in Malaysia, which was the top of my list. And so I ended up winning three titles. So I was like, you know, score for me for being a newbie. And that was Ms. Best Diver, Ms. Marine Conservation and second runner up. Second. So I think those first two were the most important to me. And then that brings me. All right. Yeah, Backstart. Long journey. And then I moved back and applied for what I thought was my dream job in Puerto Rico working for Jean Michel Cousteau's Ambassadors of the Environment program at the Ritz Carlton Reserve in Dorado Beach. And in two weeks, I packed up and moved to Puerto Rico and worked there for a year, taking the top 1% of the top 1% scuba diving and snorkeling and kayaking and forest hikes and all sorts of fun nature activities.
And then came back to LA and thought, okay, I should get my teaching credential because I love educating people about the environment and biology. And I did a quarter of that and realized, nope, you can't tell me how to teach and what to teach and be in little cookie cutter box. And so that led me to find a great master's program in Portland, Oregon. And so I moved here eight years ago, got my master's in sustainability education and then worked for Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition as the marketing coordinator and then volunteered with the Surfrider Portland chapter ever since I moved here. And that got me into the ocean conservation world in Oregon. And I applied for this job, Director of Outreach and Community Relations for the Alaka alliance, right before COVID hit. I didn't even get an interview. But the job reopened a year later and it was, you know, perfect timing. I got an interview immediately and they offered me the job the next day.
So even if you get told no, that doesn't mean it's no forever.
And so, yeah, I've been working for a locker for almost four years now.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Wow. Absolutely incredible.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Yeah, sorry, it's probably way too much that you didn't want to know, but.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Oh, no, that was good. That's why I. I just love exploring everybody's stories that come on here because, you know, I'm just sitting down with you at a moment in time, and that is today. And yet we have these long, winding, crazy journeys that get us to what we're doing now, what our passion is, what we're sitting down to discuss now for however long we're going to be talking about sea otters. And I just, I love to hear that so that everybody knows that it's never a straight line. It never, ever is, as you can hear, from miss Scuba to kangaroo costumes to being told no where, your dream job. And now, you know, working to conserve sea otters. Marine conservation. See, it's just awesome. Yeah.
So with that, obviously, with your strong background in marine biology, marine conservation, and your intertwining love of sea otters throughout your life, could you maybe give us a little history about sea otters in the United States and starting wherever you feel is appropriate for us to have context of this species here?
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll start. The historical range of sea otter spanned all the way south in Baja California, Mexico, up the US Coastline, inhabiting waters from California, Oregon, Washington, up through British Columbia, Alaska, and all the way over to Japan. And they also inhabited Russia, too. And it's unknown the total population that resided along the US before the fur trade, but it's estimated that Oregon specifically had between 3,000 to 4,000 sea otters.
And the maritime fur trade began in what's now the US in the late 18th century, around the 1780s. And it was driven primarily by European and American traders who sought highly valued sea otter pelts. So their fur, which were considered luxurious and high demand in China. And the trade was catalyzed by Captain James Cook's third voyage between 1776 and 1780, during which the expedition brought back news of the lucrative market for sea otter pelts in Asia. And soon after, the British, American and other European traders began actively hunting sea otters along the Pacific Northwest coast, including Oregon, Washington and Alaska. And it said that the sea otter pelt is worth 10 beaver pelts, which were the pillar of the American fur trade at the time. So that's a lot. It was known as soft gold. And so the peak of the maritime fur trade occurred between the 1790s and the early 1800s. But by the mid 19th century, the overhunting had decimated sea otter populations, leading to the collapse of the trade in many of the areas. And so over a million sea otters were killed by European and Native hunters.
And so that's 199 of every 100 sea otters were killed during the fur trade.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: So it was pretty bad.
So sorry for the sea otters. But thankfully, they weren't totally extirpated. So there were small remnant populations of sea otters that had survived across the Aleutian Islands, and then one small population off of the coast of California, off of Big Sur, if you're familiar with that beautiful area. There's about 50 in California that survived. And so now those surviving 50 are southern subspecies of sea otters. And so now in California, there's about 3,000 sea otters. And just think about, they are the descendants of those 50 that survived the fur trade. So their genetic diversity is very low. They're all basically cousins of one another and every sea otter north of that. So starting in Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska, those are all northern subspecies of sea otters, and there's hundreds of thousands of those. So they. They are great in the genetic diversity category.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: So then one thing that I found really interesting is, is, you know, alaka means sea otter in a native language, which I, you know, would love for you to go a little bit into. But yet Oregon hasn't had any sea otters in a century. So could you maybe have some historical context? Why was a sea otter organization, Alaka alliance, founded in Oregon if sea otters aren't there? A little bit history of that, that'd be great.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: I apologize. I'm just recovering from a cold, so if my voice goes out, that's why.
But the Lock alliance was founded by the late David Hatch, who was a Celette tribal member, and he and his son were building a boat together. And he's like, I'm going to look for a name for our boat. And pulled out a Chinook trade jargon dictionary and came across the word alaka, which means sea otter. And he's like, huh? Why is there a word for sea otter in here if we don't have sea otters in Oregon, what happened to Oregon's sea otter population? So that led him down a journey of questioning and talking to researchers and scientists and professors to figure out what happened to Oregon sea otters, where were they found? And then also talking to different elders to find stories about sea otters in different indigenous communities. And so that started in 1999. So the thought of Alaka is spanning multiple decades now, Unfortunately, David passed away in 2016, but his passion and drive for this mission to bring sea otters back to the Oregon coast ignited Bob Bailey, who's our board president to create a board of directors to make Alaka alliance an actual nonprofit. And so we became an official 501c3 nonprofit in 2020.
And so David's son, Peter Hatch, who he was building the boat with, is on our board of directors. And so it's a family affair. And we're very lucky to have Peter on our board and to continue the mission of his father.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: Yeah, how cool, how beautiful. Just a, how one spark of curiosity can be like, wait a second. And now, I mean, 99. Wow. We're almost in 2025. That is a long time to be. 26 years essentially to be pursuing this noble cause of bringing back a keystone species. Speaking of keystone species, sea otters are very, very important.
So could you maybe talk a little bit more about this on what has happened to Oregon's marine ecosystems without the key key predators like sea otters and sea. Was it sunflower sea stars I think that we talked about last time. So with them gone, what are marine biologists, your scientists, you. What are all of you seeing along Oregon's coasts?
[00:16:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So recently the Oregon Kelp alliance summarized data from 2010 to 2022 of KELP survey data. And they determined that about two thirds of our kelp forests along Oregon's coastline are decimated, so no longer there.
And so that's kind of a multi caused approach of global warming, climate change, and also the overpopulation of purple sea urchins. And so while sea otters have been absent for over 112 years, we've had another key predator, the sunflower sea star, which is those huge sea stars with about 25 arms. And so they were eating purple urchins while sea otters have been gone. And so unfortunately, we lost 99% of the entire sea star population due to sea star wasting disease that occurred in 2013-2015. And they haven't rebounded as quickly as other sea sea stars which were also hit with the disease. And so now we have two key predators missing from the kelp forest ecosystem, which means sun or the purple urchins are like, hey, we can just come out from our hidings of nooks and crevices that we normally just wait for kelp to fall down and we eat and we can come out and munch on the whole pass of the kelp, which is how the kelp attaches itself to the reef and then let the kelp go and then everybody gets a heyday. And so now there's what they call urchin barrens. So just Think of like a purple carpet on the ocean floor. And so there's just hundreds and thousands and actually there's an estimated 350 million urchins just on one reef in southern Oregon. And so they are just. Isn't it that I can't even imagine seeing that in person.
And so, yeah, they are just decimating and eating all the kelp in their path because nothing is keeping their population in check. And so they are, they are native to the ecosystem, but when there's an imbalance of a tropic cascade where their predators are missing, then we have a problem. And they're also kind of, unfortunately, they just don't die. They can live for a whole year without ever eating anything. They just slow their metabolic rate down and just kind of turn into this zombie state and wait for kelp or some detritus or something to fall down for them to eat. So it's kind of like the perfect storm of the worst case scenario for the kelp forest. So that's what's happening on much of our kelp forest ecosystem, coastlines in Northern California, Oregon and Washington.
So yeah, it's a big deal.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: So do what kills them naturally. If they don't have their predators, is there anything, do big storms take them out or are they just pretty invincible without sea hunters and sunflowers?
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Yeah, they're pretty invincible.
They're. Yeah. Without their top predators, they're, they're just living the dream until they eat all that's in their path. And they're pretty sad. But then they can just go into that zombie state.
I'm sure big storm surges don't help them try and stay attached to the reef. But also there are scientific divers who have permits to cull urchins, which basically means you go down underwater with a hammer and just smash those suckers. So if you have anger management problems and you're a scientific diver, you can apply for that permit and help.
But yeah, so they basically go down and smash as many urchins as they can. And that's not a long term solution, of course, but it helps clear a specific part of the reef where we can watch and see if kelp forests come back to life. Or there's something called green seeding where you can grow baby kelp and throw those rocks down there for kelp to kind of flourish. So it's good for research, but that's definitely not a long term solution to just go down and hammer them.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Yeah. How often can we actually do that? Yeah, it seems that the more and More humans try to intervene, the more we're realizing that just bringing back ecosystems to their balanced state is actually the best plan, you know?
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And also where, you know, sea urchins are a delicacy called uni in Japan. And so there's also some aquaculture in the works happening in Oregon to try and just capture the zombie ones, beef them up on land, and then sell them to restaurants.
So that's also one way to kind of combat it. But the. The need or the want for uni is not, you know, extremely high. So it's just, you know, there's lots of different steps to try and decrease the urchin population, but obviously the keystone species are the biggest one to help against to combat the overpopulation.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And speaking of that, going back to Alaka's work.
So if sea otters haven't gone for 112 years, how exactly do you all plan to bring them back? Is that part of the plan, or. And if you are, how close are you to getting there? But, yeah. Are sea otters coming back to Oregon?
[00:22:31] Speaker B: So the Alaka alliance hired top six renowned sea otter scientists to conduct a scientific feasibility study on the reintroduction of sea otters back to Oregon. So is it feasible? That was the biggest question, obviously. And so this scientific study evaluated key considerations for reintroducing sea otters to Oregon, such as habitats that could work best, how sea otters could affect these habitats in other species, and how organ businesses and communities could be impacted. And the six authors assess biological, ecological, demographic, health, welfare, regulatory, logistical, and stakeholder concerns, sharing findings that decision makers must weigh. So they covered a whole gambit of all the things that would need to be considered for reintroduction. If you are really into scientific reading, you can buy that actual feasibility study on our website. It's really thorough and well done. But in the end, they said, yes, it is feasible. So that is a step in the right direction. And then the US Fish and Wildlife Service also published their own scientific assessment of reintroduction of sea otters in Northern California and Oregon. And they also concluded that it was feasible.
So that was another big step forward.
It's ultimately U.S. fish and Wildlife Service who will do and propose an actual translocation of sea otters, because that's under their jurisdiction, because sea otters are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. And so the Alaka alliance does a lot of advocacy and education and outreach. So we are educating the public, engaging community stakeholders, and also conducting research to, you know, put that on a plate for U.S. fish and Wildlife Service and say, hey, this. Everybody's on board. Here's the science and here's all. All the things you need to make this happen.
So that is currently where we're standing, and we have a good relationship with U.S. fish and Wildlife Service and have quarterly meetings with them and updates. And so they don't have a proposal for a reintroduction right now, but they estimate sea otters could come back to Oregon within four to seven years. And we've been on this journey for about five years with Alaka, and it took about 10 years for the California condors to get reintroduced with the Yurok tribe. So that's kind of like our. Our goal of a native species being reintroduced again. So I like to think we're about halfway there to seeing sea otters back in Oregon.
So, yeah, it's a. It's an unknown, but we're working hard. And there's a lot of positive research about sea otters impacting kelp forests and estuaries and positive ways that I think are undeniable that bringing sea otters back would be, you know, such a positive impact on our ecosystems.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: Is there a chance or a way that they could naturally migrate back to Oregon?
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Great question. I get that question a lot.
So sea otters are not a migratory species, which is why they haven't naturally just, you know, swam back to Oregon and said, hey, we're home. And so actually, about one third of sea otters today are due to successful translocation efforts. And so sea otters were reintroduced in Washington in the 1970s. They were also reintroduced in Oregon at the same time. And unfortunately, it was not successful in Oregon.
And there's not, you know, one reason that we can pinpoint why that didn't work. Our board president, Bob Bailey, has done presentations on the 1970s translocation, which can be found on our YouTube if you're really interested. But basically, they just think. Researchers think they didn't release enough animals during that time to withstand natural immigration and mortality rates that happen in a translocation. So they did survive for about a decade and have pups, but they eventually just disappeared.
And so 50 years now ahead, we have much better translocation methods.
And also, none of the sea otters were tagged in the 70s, so we don't know where they went. And so now we have a lot of people who would be really eager to do some community science and watch sea otters. So I think a future translocation would be much more successful. But they are wild animals, so nobody ever knows. But I think we have enough data and science now to understand from past translocations how to make a more successful one.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really exciting. Yeah. Sometimes it's so unfortunate when translocation projects don't work. And especially if, I mean, the 70s, wow. We're talking 50 years ago at this point, and that now we're just not having the conversation of maybe it happening again. But like you said, thankfully, in that amount of time, this industry, this field has progressed so far, and there are positive and concrete examples of this working in other areas. So it's not completely new. It's not like the wolves of yellowstone in the 90s. Like, it's okay, we have some data, we have some work. We can hopefully make this happen. And then going to the people side of this, do you predict or do you see any, like, benefits or potential.
Not benefits, like bad things, maybe from, like, a socioeconomic sign? Um, I'm sure a part of that feasibility study that people were talked to, stakeholders were talked to. So what came out of that? What are the potential barriers from maybe, like, a people side of bringing sea otters back?
[00:28:39] Speaker B: So, based on our feasibility study, it was concluded that more socioeconomic impact assessment should be done. And so we're working on that. And also, U.S. fish and Wildlife, once they do propose a reintroduction and pick the actual translocation sites, they would do socioeconomic impact assessments on those individual sites, too. But we are conducting a shell fisheries impact assessment on the south coast, specifically oyster farms, because there has been some interaction with sea otters and oyster farmers in Alaska. So we are learning from that. And they. Sea otters don't normally go for oysters in the wild, but when they're, you know, in a bag, sitting there as kind of a free meal, it's like, hey, why not? Right? But.
But there are oyster traps that they can be sea otter resistant, so just have to kind of function it a different way.
And so U.S. fish and Wildlife Service is working to perhaps provide those sea otter kind of safety traps to Oregon oyster farmers if in the case that that needed to happen. But we conducted a study with Dean Runyon and associates on a South coast tourism impact assessment. So how much money could be generated by people just coming to Oregon to view sea otters in the wild? And so it's, you know, wildlife tourism is huge. Like, I'm a part of that. I love to travel just to go see. Yeah, totally. Why? That's why people like, you know, wildlife and listening to this podcast, they love animals, and so they estimated about $3.5 million a year in income just for people coming to sea sea otters on the southern Oregon coast. So that's huge.
And so, yeah, there's still more studies to be done, and that's what we're working on and research. But, yeah, the positive impact to our coastal communities just through tourism is a big, positive step forward to generating some more income for those communities.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fantastic. As somebody who, like, my professional career is in conservation tourism, so. And it's using tourism as a tool to protect wildlife. And it sounds like this could potentially be a part of that. I mean, I want to go see sea otters. I've never seen one in the wild. I've now seen some other amazing endangered otter species, like giant otters. Seen them on the.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: Saw that on your Instagram.
I was like, oh, I want to go see giant otters, too. That sounds so cool.
[00:31:34] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. There's a fantastic project on there. And I don't know how to say it in Portuguese, but it's essentially the giant otter project down there.
They're doing fantastic work. So it was really cool to finally see them in the wild, But I have not seen sea otters. Well, I haven't been to the west coast, so that's part of the problem. Gotta go there first. Alaska's high on the list, but just imagine to have them back in a place like Oregon would just be so special. And just staying on the communities aspect, you know, going back to the very history and the founding of Alaka is tribal and indigenous communities. So could you maybe talk a little bit more about that?
What are the local tribes that are involved, and what do they think about possibly bringing back a very important, I'm assuming, for their culture? And I mean, if they have a word, Alaka, about it. But could you talk a little bit more about that so that we can understand from a cultural standpoint for tribal communities? That'd be great.
[00:32:34] Speaker B: Totally. So there's at least six different words for sea otter in different indigenous languages along the Oregon coastline. And so indigenous communities do play a central and indispensable role with the work we do at a Lock Alliance. And we have letters of support from every coastal tribe. And we have three coastal tribes represented on our board of directors as well. The Siletz Tribe, the Coquille Tribe, and the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians.
And so it's very integrained in their past, elder stories and their history to have sea otters and indigenous peoples live alongside each Other for at least 10,000 years before they were extirpated. And we know that sea otters were also on the Oregon coast, specifically northern and southern subspecies, because their bones were found in shell middens that were along the Oregon coast, which is just big piles of discard of bones and other items used by indigenous peoples. And so that's also another really key point of reintroducing sea otters back to Oregon is to increase the genetic diversity of those northern and southern subspecies.
And sea otter fur was used and are still used in Regalia for a lot of these coastal community tribes and so used. And the chiefs would wear them as capes, their pelts, and they're also used in hair pieces as well. And so I'm not of indigenous descent, so I don't want to speak on behalf of them. But we have a really beautiful video of Peter Hatch, who is the son of David Hatch, our founder, on our YouTube channel and our website, that he discusses the cultural significance of sea otters in Oregon and what it really means to bring them back. And it's a very touching video. I almost like it brings me to tears almost every time I watch it. It's just really well done. And the message comes across, you know, from somebody who, it's so meaningful to them and I want to thank. The Oregon Zoo is a big partner of ours and they helped create that video for us.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: Yeah, how cool.
It seems like so many hearts that could be touched by bringing them back. And to continue down the why for a little bit further, not only from a cultural standpoint, possibly tourism for us animal loving freaks that just want to go travel the world and spend way too much money to go see wildlife around the world, I fall exactly squarely into that category.
Let's talk about why this is important. Yes, it's cool to talk about bringing sea otters back, but in a day where we were just bringing up nature based solutions, climate change, all of these bigger issues, from your standpoint, from a Locke standpoint, why is it important to bring back sea otters?
[00:35:47] Speaker B: That's a big question.
[00:35:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it is a big question.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: I'll, I'll circle back to that. Sea otters are a keystone species. And so that means their presence in the ecosystem is disproportionate to the impact on the environment compared to their abundance. So their actions significantly, significantly shape the structure and biodiversity of their habitats. And so we mentioned before, they regulate the sea urchin population by grazing on them, which allows kelp to flourish then. And we know kelp is A big carbon sink. So it sequesters about 20 times more carbon per acre than land forests do. And so when it sinks, when it, you know, gets dislodged from the reef and sinks down to the bottom of the sea floor and gets there, left there for decades, that traps the carbon.
So that is huge when, you know, climate change is on the mind of everyone right now.
And also, kelp forests are big fish nurseries and habitat for gray whales that migrate along the Oregon coast. And so the Dungeness crab industry, fishing industry, is number one in the state of Oregon. And so guess what? Dungeness crab larvae and baby crabs love to live in the kelp forest ecosystem and that protection. So over time, with a healthier kelp forest ecosystem, the number of rockfish, the number of Dungeness crab are only likely to increase, which would make, you know, fishermen very happy. And also, sea otters have been found to be a keystone species in estuaries. So the Elkhorn Slough is kind of the role model of research coming out about estuaries and the impacts of those sea otters that have been reintroduced there. And so new research, or just a couple weeks ago got released that concluded southern sea otters eat up to 120,000 European green crabs per year in the Elkhorn Slough. And guess what? We have invasive European green crabs in Oregon as well. So that's a huge proponent also to bring them back to help control this invasive species that's taking away habitat and also eating other things that crabs like to eat, like the Dungeness crabs. So they're competing. So that's a win, win to bring sea otters back to Oregon to help control those nasty little invaders. And also a couple months ago, there was another study published in Nature where sea otters are helping to slow erosion rate in salt marshes by up to 69%.
So same place that Elkhorn Slough, thanks to their ferocious appetites, otters have created a cascading effect on the food web. So reducing the number of burrowing, burrowing shore crabs and dramatically slowing down the erosion rates in the Elkhorn Slough, which actually increases the clarity of the water, which helps increase eel grass, which also sequesters carbon, too. So sea otters are such a wonderful animal to be in these ecosystems, and I think we're missing out in Oregon. We need to bring them back to help all, all the things. Everything is so interconnected, as we know as scientists and the environment, that without sea otters, we're missing a healthy ecosystem.
Yeah.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: I'm so glad you brought that up. And you brought up exactly the point I was hoping you were going to. And that was the carbon sequestration. Sometimes that word gets me, you know.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: I know, it gets me every time.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: So many years and still I get tongue tied. It's amazing.
But rewildology is a part of the global rewilding alliance and they've been talking a lot about these keystone species that have an, a disproportionate effect on mitigating climate change. Like if we would help restore their populations as a tool, one of the many tools in the tool bag for helping that. And they were just recently, very recently talking about sea otters. And you brought that up perfectly. And the big thing is they protect the kelp forests, which, I mean, oh my gosh, you want to talk about an ecosystem that is just so important for our coastal waters, just the kelp forest and them being gone. And then speaking of the kelp forest. So I've never been part of a marine restoration project. So out of curiosity, what will come first? Or is this kind of like a chicken or the egg question? Do we bring sea otters back to then quell the urchin population? Or do you start growing kelp forest and then like doing the best to human just bash these little turd sea urchins or, or what? Like which do we do first? Do we plant kelp, get those forests thriving and then the sea otters? Or is it the other way around? Or is it all at once? I guess. What is the order of events here? Yeah, to get our kelp forest back.
[00:41:03] Speaker B: So I know, I don't think there's like a single way to do it.
I think having a number of different organizations working to help restore the kelp forest ecosystem is the best approach. So bringing sea otters back is the long term solution as a keystone species. We have other organizations working on aquaculture of kelp and releasing it into the wild. We also have groups like the Sunflower Sea Star Lab which are growing baby sunflower sea stars which are so cute in a lab, and then that they are potentially going to release them into the wild. So another reintroduction facet. And so those two things are kind of a short term solution to helping with the kelp forest restoration in Oregon. And so, yeah, I think having resiliency in the ecosystem, so having two key predators back is the best approach to helping combat these, you know, overpopulation of sea urchins. But I, you know, it also depends on the government taking action. And so it's kind of an unknown of which way and how of all these different facets are going to happen and when. But I think as long as we're all working to the same end goal of providing a healthier kelp forest, marine coastal ecosystem for us all, that's, that's what we need to keep in mind and keep us moving forward. Because if we, you know, Dr. Sylvia Earle, who is, you know, the goddess of marine scientists, if you're a woman or a man, whoever you are, she is, you know, such a foundational person for my, my wanting to be a marine biologist. But she said, you know, if there's no blue, there's no green.
So if we don't have a healthy ocean, we don't have a healthy planet at all. And so yeah, I think as long as we're working to save our oceans, that's the biggest thing.
[00:43:15] Speaker A: And so if Alaka is about halfway, you would think in the timeline of things to bringing otters back, then what is like the big goal for 2025? If you're working like halfway there, like what are you doing? What is the organization doing to continue moving the goalpost forward but knowing that the final, final goal is still a little ways away.
So what is it that we're hoping to accomplish in the like near term, next 12 months?
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Yeah, so we've got several different, you know, eggs in the basket, I guess, so to speak. I don't know that's the best term.
But we, we just started doing some more political advocacy work. So there's an action alert on our website. If you live in Oregon that you can, it takes like two minutes to fill out and you put in your information and we have a letter proposed that just sends directly to your representatives that you want sea otters back in the Orient coast and what it means to you. So I think we have over 260 letters sent so far and I just launched that a couple of months ago, so that's important. So we're trying to, you know, keep it in the minds of our state representatives that the people, their constituents want sea otter's back on the Oregon coast for the betterment of us all.
And we're also hopefully going to release a really important statistical model on sea otter reintroduction in Northern California and Oregon that's been working with several partners.
I don't know how much I can say about that right now, but it's basically showcasing, you know, different places along that coastline, um, and the likelihood of success if you released, you know, you can put in 25 males and 50 females in this one spot. And it'll show you the likelihood of success.
Too many s words success statistically of sea otters in that population over, you know, like a 20 year period of time.
And so that's really important because there's a regional approach for reintroducing sea otters in Northern California and Oregon currently. So we, we work a lot with our California stakeholders and partners that want to do sea otter reintroduction down there.
So that's also something that we're working on moving forward. And we're also working with the tribes in California as well. And so we're looking possibly to do a tribal conference and meeting in Oregon just based on sea otter reintroduction that combines the Oregon and California tribes to, you know, kind of cross pollinate our thoughts and processes moving forward.
And then obviously just continuing to do our, our public outreach. I've already got like a full list of presentations and events for January and February of 2025. So I'm excited for that.
And also just a shameless plug. Our biggest fundraiser of the year is the Oregon Otter Beer Festival. So I host this really fun event in Portland. It'll be April 12, 2025, and it hap this will be the fourth year where we have local Oregon breweries making a sea otter themed beer using Maris Otter malt, which we just use that fun name and have them make an otter beer. And then I've got a winery, cider companies and a ginger beer company, sake company because there's se in Japan, so why not involve a sake company?
And we've got some really wonderful silent auction and raffle prizes. So if you're an artist or an author or somebody who wants to maybe donate something for that auction, please reach out to me. We always get some really beautiful things and that part of the event raises at least $5,000 alone for that silent auction. So anyway, that's always one of the biggest things for me to do and.
[00:47:47] Speaker A: Yeah, well, please keep us posted on that really cool event. Oh my gosh. Oh, I wish I was closer to the west coast. Cause then I would be like, that sounds amazing. Like I would be all over that. I would make sure I would Uber and have a hotel nearby because I would want to enjoy that to its fullest.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: We do have people that come from out of state each year just to attend. And it sells out each year. It's like very intimate, only 300 people. So, you know, if you want to make it an event on your calendar, maybe come out, I'll take you to The Oregon Zoo. You can see the sea otters there because they're not on our coastline.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: Yeah, well keep us posted as like the dates are announced and everything like that. And then I can keep, of course, the rewater ology community in the know. This really big fun event is coming up and there's so many incredible, passionate people that are part of this community and probably you're even close to Oregon. I actually know of two people literally right off the top of my head that would be there immediately. I'm probably going to tell them after this like, hey, by the way, what are you doing April 12th? Because I know, I know a really cool event that you would love. So. Yes, yes, please keep us posted on this. Chanel.
So I would love to just switch to you for a little bit. And I really love asking this question to people. Come on. And one of the big reasons why I wanted to ask you is because you have such a winding career, like you've done so many different things. You've been on different continents studying marine biology, marine conservation, and doing things that are way out of your comfort zone, all in the name of raising marine conservation awareness. So what advice do you have for those listening? Maybe those that are brand new to this field where they're just getting their feet wet and like really don't know what to do. And maybe those of us who we've been in it a while and maybe we're still trying to like figure things out or we want to progress further, further in this and have more impact. From your perspective for both camps, what advice would you like to give us?
[00:49:55] Speaker B: Yeah, let's see. Well, everyone's journey is so different. You know, I would say I, I think it's good to kind of dip your, your toe or your fin or whatever you would like to do into lots of different realms of something that you're interested in. So like I did marine mammal training, I trained sea lions at the sluice program at Moss Landing Marine Labs and then realized I don't know if I want to do that as a full time career, but I love working with animals. So I just continue to volunteer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with animals.
And I think it's also really great to meet people in fields or doing professions, jobs that you want to do and connect with them and learn how did they get there, like what schooling did they do? Do they like their job and just, you know, continue to make these friendships with people. And I think that's kind of, I'm really a people person. So if I Meet somebody, I get their information and I try and stay in touch because you never know if a position might open in their field. And they're like, oh, I remember meeting that. That Chanel. She was really interested in sea otters. Let me see if she might be interested in this position. So I think it doesn't hurt to just reach out to people and you can even, you know, blindly on LinkedIn. I've done that before and just be like, hey, I. How do I get a job working in your department? This is exactly what I want to do. Or something like that. It doesn't hurt to do something like that. Kind of. It's out of your comfort zone, but you never know where it might end up. And also just volunteering, too. I know a lot of wildlife jobs and positions in conservation.
A lot of them are unpaid. So if it's possible to volunteer, you know, a couple hours a week or like a zoo or an aquarium or something along those lines, I know that that's really helpful on a resume or also getting to know people in that field, too, is really crucial to making those impacts and connections in. In the field that you might want to work in one day. So hopefully that's helpful. But, yeah, I think it's also really great to do other jobs that maybe are not in your field to figure out that that's not where you want to be. I can't sit at a desk all day in a cubicle. I've done that before and worked in, you know, a huge company. Nope, can't do that. This, like, there's only three. Three. I guess now there's three and a half staff here at Alaka. So we're. We're a small nonprofit making big waves, I like to say. But we're all very well interconnected with one another, and we all do amazing work.
So I love that. I work out of, you know, the comfort of my home, but I'm usually traveling to the coast a lot of the time, too, or to classrooms or retirement communities giving presentations. So it really is my dream job to get paid to teach people about sea otters and kelp forests and meet people from around, literally the globe who care about it.
[00:53:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fantastic advice. It's amazing who you meet when you just put yourself out there a little bit and especially exploring. There's so many ways to be a conservationist, to be a marine, anything, you know, just anything in this field. There's so many different ways you can do it, and there's probably a niche for you. So yeah, that was fantastic advice. So if those of us listening, we would love to support Alaka, how is the best way that we should go about that?
[00:53:52] Speaker B: Our well, we are a 501c3 nonprofit, so obviously financial contributions through donations, we have monthly donors or you can do a one time donation through our website. It's really easy. That is probably the best way to support us. You can also follow us on social media. That's what I manage. All we're on, you know, every platform, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X threads, blue Sky.
So find us on there if you, you know, you can like and follow us. And you'll just be guaranteed to get some really cute sea otter photos every now and then. So that's not a bad thing.
And we also do presentations too. So if you're a teacher or you volunteer with a non profit who does, you know, learning meetings, or you're working a business and they have kind of lunch and learn things, you can invite us to speak. We do that, you know, locally here in Oregon and also via Zoom. So I'm giving a presentation to the Cincinnati Zoo staff and volunteers next month. So yeah, we're happy to do presentations. If you want to learn more about sea otters and kelp forests and their impacts on the ecosystem.
And then as I mentioned before, if you are an Oregon resident, please fill out our call to action to send a letter to your representative on our website to let them know that you want sea otters back in Oregon. That's really helpful for us. And then anyone can just spread the word that sea otters are missing on part of their native habitat along the Oregon coastline, specifically here in the US and we're the only state that used to have them that has zero. So just helping spread that information and why it's really important to bring them back as a keystone species and culturally significant to our indigenous communities as well is, you know, that goes a really long way. So hopefully you can do one of those things or all of those things and make my day. But yeah.
[00:55:59] Speaker A: Well, Chanel, this was a beautiful conversation. Thank you so much for taking the time on the very last day, like I said, of 2024, celebrating with me and having a beautiful conversation with a lot of hope and actively working to restore a keystone species and a very important vital habitat as well off the coast. So thank you again for spending the time and I cannot wait to share the story with everybody.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: Yay. I also want to say you can Visit our website Oregon. You can find it Oregon Sea Otters.org It's a little easier than spelling Alaka Alliance.org but there's a plethora of information and research and science and videos about the maritime fur trade, cultural significance, sea otters, kelp forests, all all that stuff for you to dive into. So it's a really great resource if you want to learn more.
[00:56:58] Speaker A: Yep, and I will make sure to have all those links
[email protected] in the show notes. So everybody, if you want to go to one spot, if you're like, how do I smell? I have no idea. You can just go to Rewatology. I will make sure it's all there for you. So again, Chanel, thank you so much. It was fantastic.
[00:57:15] Speaker B: Thanks Brooke.
[00:57:19] Speaker A: Thank you for joining me on this wild adventure today. I hope you've been inspired by the incredible stories, insights and knowledge shared in this episode. To learn more about what you heard, be sure to check out the show
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