Monday December 16, 2024
The Mercury News —
Although sea otters are an unofficial mascot of the Monterey Bay area and popular among tourists and locals alike, they are also described by scientists as voracious predators that help keep problematic invaders out of coastal waters.
A recent study was published in the scientific journal Biological Invasions, detailing that otters at the Elkhorn Slough are keeping populations of globally invasive green crab at bay.
“I’ve studied green crabs in estuaries on three coasts and two continents for decades, and this is one of the first pieces of good news we’ve gotten,” said Rikke Jeppesen, an estuarine ecologist at Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve who spearheaded the publication, in a statement.
Green crabs were first found at the slough in 1994 and the population peaked in the early 2000s. Since then, the population has declined and hasn’t reached the peak numbers again.