If you're looking to spot a #seaotter in the wild, #Alaska makes the perfect place for it as the sea otter capital of North America.
🔗 Here's where you are guaranteed to find them: http://dlvr.it/TVht5D
#seaotter — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #seaotter, aggregated by home.social.
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Nice!
Sea Otter Week calls for a sea otter song 🦦🎶 #naturepbs #seaotter #newmusic #animals #wildlife
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Urgent message for humanity: Sea kelp(!)
Forest of the sea: The remarkable life and imperiled future of kelp by David Helvarg, 2026. Island Press, an imprint of Princeton University Press.
There’s a saying in English, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ (Candace Osmond), meaning that when something is not seen, it is easily forgotten or ignored. It seems particularly apt when applied to kelp*, large brown seaweeds (‘macroalgae‘) (Alan Millar; Ole Mouritsen; Leonel Pereira, 2021). Although they may grow so dense that they have been described as ‘kelp forests’ (Selma Christensen et al., 2023), they live the days that remain left to them submerged beneath the ocean. Essentially out of sight of land-based human eyes**, kelp exemplifies the notion of ‘plant blindness’, “a tendency for individuals to overlook and underestimate plants” (Georgios Ampatzidis & Alexandros Amprazis, 2026). And that plant-ignorance is never good, neither for people, or the planet [Ed. – nor for the plants themselves, who are eminently worthy of our admiration and appreciation].
So much for the bad news. The good news is that Forest of the sea by David Helvarg [which book is here appraised] seems destined to right that wrong as it opens our eyes to these magnificent ocean-dwellers, and – in particular – the perils they currently face. Helvarg has set himself the challenge of making everybody much more kelp-aware.
Appreciation for Helvarg
Forest of the sea by David Helvarg is about people as much as the kelp (and it’s also about other seaweeds and marine organisms as well as that particular group of brown seaweeds). Although it features a good deal about the biology of kelp specifically, it’s scope is much broader – ecological – than that. In fact, it’s probably one of the most holistic-ecology books I’ve read for a long time as it interweaves stories about kelp, sea otters, sea urchins, abalone, fish, lobster, communities of people, climate change, commercial activities, all together in an interconnected and very satisfying whole.
Whilst it contains quite a lot of science***, reading Forest of the sea is neither difficult nor a chore. And that’s because it is so well-written. Variously part nature diary (Helvarg’s lyrical accounts of diving on coral reefs in Palau, and in kelp forests in the US are pure literary gold), part ecological text, part travelogue (the ‘kelp highway’ is given a good mention here), part history lesson (who knew there was such a thing as ‘the otter wars’?), and liberally sprinkled with a plethora of pithy pen portraits of people and ‘kelp personalities’, Helvarg’s book is awash with engaging – and compelling – story-telling. Throughout, Helvarg writes with humour and humanity. Emphasising that humanity, Helvarg incorporates many first-hand testimonies from the people who are daily working with, diving in, trying to save and restore, kelp, etc. And, with numerous mentions of different groups of indigenous peoples, and their traditional relationships with kelp and its associated community of animals, Forest of the sea is very much a ‘plants’-and-people book. All-in-all, Forest of the sea is a pleasure to read. Not only that, it tells a very important story that deserves to be much more widely known by all of us****.
Book’s subject matter in a nutshell…
And that story can be summarised simply as “kelp is the new coral” (which is also the title of chapter 8). By which statement Helvarg is “not promoting recreational kelp diving. Rather, I’m pointing out that the kind of degradation we’ve seen with coral reefs is now happening to kelp forests” (p. 177). Documenting that demise (which seems pretty comprehensive in some areas…), and highlighting restorative measures (many of which are encouraging…), is what Forest of the sea is all about.
Sadly, kelp is not as eye-catching and ‘exotic’ as coral reefs in the mind of the public, so its plight – which is as bad as that of warm-water corals (as the book makes abundantly clear) – has largely gone unremarked by the public at large. Yes, there is a band of global advocates for kelp preservation, conservation, and restoration (and Helvarg tells us plenty about the sterling efforts being undertaken in that regard). But, until the general public is mobilised to take an interest in the problem, there’s unlikely to be the pressure on governments to increase the action they may be taken to conserve and restore kelp cover. That is why we need books like Helvarg’s Forest of the sea. It is not just an account of what’s happened and what’s being done now, it’s a call to arms, for all of us to promote the cause of kelp – and more generally ocean – restoration. Why should we care enough to do that? Because, as Helvarg is at pains to point out, what’s good for kelp isn’t just good for the sea otters, it’s good for the oceans more generally, and the planet – and people specifically. Forest of the sea is a most impassioned plea.
You still need evidence…
However, an impassioned plea is one thing, it is so much better – and convincing – to have it backed-up by evidence. And that’s what’s missing in the book*****. No explicit sources are provided for any of the statements made by Helvarg. Yes, there’s a list of Recommended Reading*****, but that contains nothing to tell the interested, but rightly sceptical, reader if those provide any of the facts Helvarg quotes. In several places in-text there are indications of sources for facts stated, e.g., ”A summer 2025 report in Current Biology identified…” (p. 7); “An August 2025 report published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution identified…” (p. 60); and “according to a 2024 report in Ecology and Evolution…” (p. 207). But, without author(s), titles, volume and page numbers, it would be quite a challenge to unearth the relevant articles.
And statements such as, “A study published in 2023 on ScienceDirect…”, and “Another 2024 study, also published on Science-Direct [which is presumably the same as ScienceDirect, as laid-out above…]…” (p. 27) don’t really help us much at all because ScienceDirect is not a named journal but a “searchable web-based bibliographic database, which provides access to full texts of scientific and medical publications of the Dutch publisher Elsevier as well of several small academic publishers” (quoted from here). Hosting “over 18 million publications from more than 4,000 academic journals and 30,000 e-books”, finding the ones Helvarg used is challenging. Whilst it seems clear that Helvarg has had access to the relevant sources for many of his statements, it’s a great shame that he hasn’t shared that information fully with his readers (who should be suitably sceptical – and entitled to see such sources – to satisfy themselves that all that Helvarg has said is reported correctly, having already seen that two different figures are quoted for the number of kelp species – “more than 300 species of kelp” (p. 3), compare with “there are about 30 species of kelp” (p. 80)).
In many more places, throughout the text, interesting points are made or facts shared that have nothing stated by way of sources. And that – serious – omission is such a pity. It undermines all of the hard work that Helvarg has undertaken in writing this important book. If you want to persuade others of the importance of these submarine forests, and convince the sceptical of the damage being done to them by human actions, your argument needs to be water-tight.
Forest of the sea is a serious book about a serious problem. But, to be taken seriously, it needs to provide its evidence.
Summary
David Helvarg’s Forests of the sea does sterling work in ensuring that the plight of kelp – the ecosystem it supports, and its people-sustaining planetary relevance – are no longer out of mind (even if they may be out of sight for much of the time…). This is an unashamed love letter to kelp. Or, rather, a love letter to the human race about kelp. I urge everybody to read it, and become more kelp-aware.
* Strictly speaking, kelp is not a plant, but a stramenopile (Thomas Silberfeld et al., 2014). Nevertheless, as a photosynthetic alga, and particularly one with a structure that has root-like, stem-like, and leaf-like parts, it is sufficiently plant-like to be considered an honorary plant for this blog, and is as much a victim of plant blindness as any ‘proper’ plant.
** Hidden from sight that is unless they are uncovered at low tides [https://sussexkelp.org.uk/about-kelp], or washed up on the shore when broken off by storms, etc. (Rachel Lambert, 2017; Wendy Laurenson, 2020. Or one swims or dives amongst them.
*** Examples of some of the technical topics – which attests to the book’s serious scholarly nature – dealt with in Forest of the sea include: convergent evolution, macroalgae, pneumatocysts, Great Oxidation Event, keystone predator, matrilineal transmission, trophic cascade, megafaunal collapse hypothesis (AM Springer et al., 2003; Douglas DeMaster et al. (2006), iron fertilization, blue carbon, ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation), urchin barrens, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, environmental DNA, and dark oxygen. Pleasingly, these terms are usually sufficiently well-explained in-text for the reader’s information.
**** To find out more about Forest of the sea, and read an extract from the book (and see some colour images of kelp…), see here.
***** Forest of the sea is not completely without sources, it includes 1.33 pages of Recommended reading. Primarily of books, the list is provided without any comment. We therefore don’t know if any of these items are sources for factual statements made in-text. Items there certainly don’t appear to include any of the scientific articles Helvarg alludes to in-text. But, importantly, this listing does include the Kelp Forest Alliance’s 2024 State of the world’s kelp forest report (p. 241) [downloadable from here, and with a commentary thereupon by Aaron M Eger et al. (2024).]
For some more kelp-related reading, you might like to look at the following articles: Olivia Ferrari’s “Sea Otters Have Helped Bolster California’s Kelp Forest”; Avery Schuyler Nunn’s “What Free Diving in a Kelp Forest Taught Me About an Overlooked but Incredibly Valuable Ecosystem”; Evan I Schwartz’s “Underwater Forests Return to Life off the Coast of California, and That Might be Good News for the Entire Planet”. For a perspective on “Ecosystem services, functions, and the value of intact kelp ecosystems”, see the scientific article by David R Schiel & Stephen R Wing (2026). For another perspective, on “The EU Nature Restoration Regulation as an opportunity for kelp forest conservation and restoration in Europe”, see Cristina Piñeiro-Corbeira et al. (2026). And for some thoughts on “Impacts of climate-driven loss of giant kelp forests on local dive tourism”, see Scott Bennett et al. (2026).
REFERENCES
Scott Bennett et al., 2026. Impacts of climate-driven loss of giant kelp forests on local dive tourism. Annals of Botany: mcag284; https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag284
Georgios Ampatzidis & Alexandros Amprazis, 2026. Plant awareness disparity (lack of plant awareness). Encyclopedia 6(3): 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia6030063
Douglas P. DeMaster et al., 2006. The sequential megafaunal collapse hypothesis: Testing with existing data. Progress in Oceanography 68(2–4): 329-342; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2006.02.007
Aaron M Eger et al., 2024. State of the world’s kelp forests. One Earth 7(11): 1927-1931; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.10.008
Leonel Pereira, 2021. Macroalgae. Encyclopedia 1(1): 177-188; https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia1010017
Cristina Piñeiro-Corbeira et al., 2026. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation as an opportunity for kelp forest conservation and restoration in Europe. Annals of Botany mcag166; https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag166
David R Schiel & Stephen R Wing, 2026. Ecosystem services, functions, and the value of intact kelp ecosystems. Annals of Botany: mcag143; https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag143
Thomas Silberfeld et al., 2014. An updated classification of brown algae (Ochrophyta, Phaeophyceae). Cryptogamie, Algologie 35(2): 117-156; https://doi.org/10.7872/crya.v35.iss2.2014.117
AM Springer et al., 2003. Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling? Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100(21): 12223-12228; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1635156100
#botany #brownSeaweed #climateChange #DavidHelvarg #ForestOfTheSea #kelp #macroalgae #marineScience #megafaunalCollapseHypothesis #plantsAndPeople #pollution #SciComm #scienceCommunication #seaOtter #seaweed #starfish #stramenopile #urchinBarrens -
We all get a little giddy seeing a #seaotter in the wild, but marine biologists in one Washington area are freaking out about one particular new sighting. 🦦
🔗 Find out why: http://dlvr.it/TVCGkZ
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If you need something to make your Monday better, this is it 🥰
🔗 Watch as one #seaotter Mama wraps her babies in kelp blankets to keep them warm and close: http://dlvr.it/TTxxf3
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If you don't live close enough or have the capability of seeing a #SeaOtter in the flesh, there are a number of North American aquariums for your fix. 😍
🔗 Check out the Sea Otter Cam from Detroit Zoo here: http://dlvr.it/TTXQ0z
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If you've never seen a #seaotter give birth to her pup, you're far from alone--it's a rare sight! But one person managed to witness the moment in awe and capture it on camera.
🔗 Watch it here: http://dlvr.it/TT1KTx
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Sea otter patrolling the coast on a quiet day. Minutes later it emerged with a clam. They use tools to open clams such as a rock or another clam. Photo taken during a photo tour in May.
#photography #wildlife #nature #SeaOtter #VancouverIsland #BritishColumbia #VancouverIslandWildlife
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I’m always late to #WorldOtterDay every year, without fail. But hey ho, here are my otters wearing plaid shirts!
Gift wrap of this design is especially popular and I suspect people are buying it for their plaid-clad partners and pals 👀🏁
#Plaid #SeaOtter #Otter #WorldOtterDay #WildlifeIllustration #SciArt #NintendoSwitch #Stationery
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It’s #worldOtterDay! Take 15% off all Eclair the Pastry Otter merch by using code “otters2026” at check-out 🦦 Shop now: www.inki-drop.com/search?q=ott... #seaotter #otter #cuteart
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Detox Doodles!
These animals are from my 100-day journey to swap scrolling for sketching: https://www.joyousjoyness.com/pages/detox-doodles
This page is about otters, both river and sea!
#art #otter #riverotter #seaotter #sketch #DetoxDoodles #sciart #InkArt
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No one is more loyal to their favorite toy or gadget than a #seaotter with their favorite rock 😍
🔗 Read more: http://dlvr.it/TSXvZN
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Rey didn't give birth to baby #seaotter Sunny, but she is, for all intents and purposes, her adopted mother at the Aquarium of the Pacific. 🥲
🔗 Read the sweet story of the recused otter pup who stole Rey's heart: http://dlvr.it/TSKVQn
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Lachlan Morton is doing instant coffee?
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Andrew L’Esperance wins Fuego XL at Sea Otter Classic
Remember when Sea Otter was about mountain bikes? Andrew L’Esperance sure does. The East Coast endurance expert landed…
#NewsBeep #News #Cycling #2026LifeTimeGrandPrix #AndrewL'Esperance #AU #Australia #FuegoXL #LifeTimeGrandPrix #seaotter #sports
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/616522/ -
Add it to the list of charming things only a #seaotter can do: get down and groovy 🎶 🦦
🔗 Watch the fun candid moment of one otter showing off their special moves: http://dlvr.it/TS5SYZ
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This ‘Tiny Moment’ Between an Otter and Her Baby Has Everyone Emotional
Parade Pets and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article. It looks peaceful, still water, and…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Wildlife #Science #seaotter
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/562884/ -
Cheers to that: The 5th annual Oregon Otter Beer Festival this April 11th aims to raise funds to help restore the marine ecosystem in the state, including the #seaotter.
🔗 Read more: http://dlvr.it/TRNyFw
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🦦🤖 To get a closer look at #seaotter life, filmmakers built a realistic robotic otter equipped with 4K cameras in its eyes.
This "Spy Otter" successfully joined a wild colony in #Alaska, capturing rare views of #otters using tools and holding hands to keep from drifting away while they sleep.
👉 https://www.discoverwildlife.com/tv/sea-otter-spy-camera-bbc
#biology #robotics #nature #ocean #engineering #science #wildlife #stem
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Sure, their armpit pouch is quite adorable, but it actually is more than just a #seaotter quirk. As it turns out, it is a resourceful tactic they use for food storage. 🦦
🔗 Read more: http://dlvr.it/TQm7YX
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I took so many photos on my date today, and we only explored ONE section of the aquarium (yay membership!)
This is my favourite tho.
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Did you know that of the 13 otter species worldwide, only one, the #seaotter, gives birth in water? 🦦
🔗 Learn more fun facts about #seaotters and other species in the latest Wild Relatives series: http://dlvr.it/TQbh9K
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Sea otter on a cold and snowy day in Homer, Alaska.
How cute is this?!
I love these snuggly little fuzz balls.
#SeaOtter #Alaska #nature #WildlifePhotography -
If you’ve ever wanted to try yoga but could never find the motivation to start, maybe yoga with the #seaotter’s cousin, the #AsianOtter, in Ohio can help.
🔗 Learn about the yoga classes offered at Westmeister Farm: http://dlvr.it/TPZCfs http://dlvr.it/TPZCft
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From Monterey Bay to Seattle, Ruby is warming hearts wherever she calls home. 💞
🔗 Meet the southern #seaotter making #history at the Seattle Aquarium: http://dlvr.it/TPRmsN http://dlvr.it/TPRmsT
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Detox Doodles!
This is my daily sketching habit in an effort to curb mindless scrolling.
This page is about otters, both river and sea!
#art #otter #riverotter #seaotter #sketch #DetoxDoodles #sciart #InkArt
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Baby sea otter is reunited with mother in central California after dramatic rescue
It was a foggy October afternoon on the central California coast when the Marine Mammal Center got a…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Environment #babyotter #centralCaliforniacoast #morrobay #Science #seaotter #shaylazink
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/291613/ -
Video shows sea otter pup reunited with mother in Morro Bay
SO GOOD LUCK. YEAH, SO THERE’S THAT. YEAH. ALL RIGHT, WELL, THIS IS A GOOD ONE. THIS IS…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Wildlife #App #cry #download #hour #marinemammalcenter #mom #morrobay #mother #otterreunion #otters #pup #reunion #Science #seaotter #seaotters #shaylazink #topcaliforniastory #video #vocalization
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/287305/ -
Sea turtle, Penguin and other Marine mammals (Marine Animals by Panini), Part 2
Back with the second group of figures from the Panini marine animals set. Last time, I focused on the cetaceans, which were okay. This time, we’ll see the rest of the marine tetrapods (the best I can do to lump them all together). They are okay too! Also, a whole group of vertebrates that can leave the water I guess. This will include several marine carnivorans, plus a sea turtle and a […]
Read more... https://animaltoyforum.com/blog/sea-turtle-penguin-and-other-marine-mammals-marine-animals-by-panini-part-2/
#Aptenodytes #AptenodytesForsteri #CaliforniaSeaLion #EmperorPenguin #Enhydra #EnhydraLutris #Eretmochelys #EretmochelysImbricata #hawksbillSeaTurtle #Hydrurga #HydrurgaLeptonyx #LeopardSeal #Odobenus #OdobenusRosmarus #polarBear #SeaOtter #Ursus #UrsusMaritimus #walrus #Zalophus #ZalophusCalifornianus
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Vancouver Aquarium Sea Otter cam.
You're welcome. -
#SeaOtter lovers, rejoice! A fun, educational event is slated to take place on the adorable creatures this Saturday, Sept. 6th at California's Doran Beach in Bodega Bay. 🦦
🔗 Learn more: http://dlvr.it/TMvVwR http://dlvr.it/TMvVwV
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Detox Doodles!
This is my daily sketching habit in an effort to curb mindless scrolling.
This page is about otters, both river and sea!
#art #otter #riverotter #seaotter #sketch #DetoxDoodles #sciart #InkArt
