Project Clean Up Coming Soon

Hello Sea Otter Prey Observers! We have been getting some fantastic observations recently; thanks to new iNat user @seaotterchannel for rocking the project with some excellent photos of cool prey!

In a couple weeks I am going to do some house cleaning on this project, removing all additions of "sea otter". If you would like to continue to include your observations, please duplicate them, make an observation of the prey species, and add those to the project. Exceptions will be made in cases of really rare observations backed up by a credible narrative. Please message me directly if you would like to make a case for keeping your observation as is.

So far, all species in the project (save one) have previously been observed directly as prey by researchers in the past, although some are definitely on the "less common" end of the spectrum. The exception is https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14533102, which has never been specifically identified before and, in this case, required hands on examination by an expert to verify. Of course this was cheating a bit, as the prey had already been eaten and was removed from the gut of a dead sea otter during a necropsy by CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife.

So keep on photographing those foraging sea otters, especially in the harder to get places like rocky coastlines, and remember to respect your subjects and avoid approaching so close you disrupt their important foraging. I am looking forward to many more cool submission in 2020!

Gena

Posted on January 3, 2020 05:21 PM by gbentall