Sea otters prefer eating healthy sea urchins found in remaining patches of kelp forests (above) rather than their starved, but still surviving, counterparts in the "sea urchin barrens" (below ...

Adorably fuzzy sea otters aren’t just cute. The marine mammals serve a crucial role, helping to restore the giant kelp forests they rely on by removing their top predators, the sea urchins. Kelp ...

The sea otters' survival proved to be the primary factor in keeping those Central California kelp forests alive and thriving; in fact, they were so successful that those kelp forests helped ...

Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers strengthen the link between sea otters and long-term health of California kelp forests in a new study released today. The paper, published in the journal PLOS Climate ...

While they have no backbone, sunflower sea stars ( Pycnopodia helianthoides) mean business–especailly when faced with spiny ...

Historical records have shown that the presence of sea otters does have a positive relationship in helping kelp forests come back. As a result of the fur trade, sea otters were thought to be ...

Historical records have shown that the presence of sea otters does have a positive relationship in helping kelp forests come back. As a result of the fur trade, sea otters were thought to be ...

Sea otters have a high metabolism, which causes them to eat about a quarter of their weight in food every day. One of their favorite dishes happens to be sea urchins, which feed on kelp.

When sea otters were reintroduced along the coastlines of islands in Southern California and British Columbia, researchers saw kelp forests return to areas that were destroyed by sea urchins. But ...

The study revealed dramatic regional kelp canopy changes over a 100-year period, from 1910 to 2016. During this time there was a significant increase in kelp forest canopy along the central coast, the ...

They determined that while kelp forests had grown back in both British Columbia and Southern California, they regenerated faster off British Columbia. So, they developed a model to create a “movie” of ...