Otters Eat Crabs. Stem Erosion.

Saving the day (and the coastline) by eating

Sea Otters Save California Coastline: A Crustacean Feast Turns the Tide on Erosion Crisis

Against the backdrop of California's scenic coast, a remarkable and positive turn of events has come about and it seems the heroes of this story are…

Er, um. Otters?

Yup! the Elkhorn Slough located between Santa Cruz and Monterey is in better form these days due to the insatiable appetite for plant-eating marsh crabs by otters.

Once upon a time this watery section of Central California was teeming with (plant, crab and otter) life but then came the fur trade. Fur traders hunted the local otter population nearly to extinction, and Elkhorn Slough’s crabs were left without predators for over a century, allowing their populations to explode and their huger to go unchecked.

“Crabs eat salt marsh roots, dig into salt marsh soil, and over time can cause a salt marsh to erode and collapse. This had been happening at Elkhorn Slough for decades until otters were reintroduced in the mid-1980s,”

You see…

The roots of the plants act as a bulwark against erosion. The crabs eat the plants, and the erosion is more consequential. The otters eat the crabs and the Slough is saved and replenishes itself.

Research in the Nature magazine cover story documents how th erosion rates have been reduced by an astonishing 90%.

It was estimated that a restoration of the estuary would cost in the tens of millions, but these non-unionized otters are doing it for free. And they get a good meal out of it!

Fun little video I found recapping this goodness: