An aggressive five-year-old female sea otter is wrestling away surfboards off the coast of Santa Cruz, California. She is aggressively going after people, like surfers and kayakers, which has caused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to label her as a public safety risk.
Videos and photos show the marine mammal getting on top of surfboards. One instance shows her biting off chunks of the board. Experts working for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife have teaming with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, hoping to capture and re-home the otter. At this time, there have been no reported injuries, but the USFWS is urging the public to not approach the otter, or encourage her behavior.
While there is no understanding for the highly unusual aggression, officials will have the otter evaluated by aquarium vets after capture. Some officials have linked aggressive behavior to hormonal surges, or being fed by humans.
This is not the first time this otter, who was born in captivity and later released to the wild, has shown aggression toward humans. The otter was seen back in May 2022 with a pup in the Santa Cruz area, and again in September of the same year displaying similar aggression. The otter was successfully hazed by California Wildlife officials and Monterey Bay Aquarium staff in September, preventing incidents during the winter.
Southern sea otters are currently listed as federally threatened under the Endangered Species Act and are protected by the Marine Mammal Act, along with California state law.
Now it could just be me, but I think the ocean and her inhabitants are trying to tell us something. With the pod of orcas in the Mediterranean taking out yachts, and now this instance of a highly aggressive otter, we may want to steer clear of water for a while.
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