Canada Released 89 Sea Otters Into a Dead Bay — What They Did to 1,000 km of Coast Was Insane
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Canada Released 89 Sea Otters Into a Dead Bay — What They Did to 1,000 km of Coast Was Insane
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In 1969, Canada had zero sea otters along its entire Pacific coast. When eighty-nine animals were released into a single bay in British Columbia, scientists hoped they might survive—but what happened next reshaped an entire ocean ecosystem.
Within decades, a coastline that had been ecologically silent for over a century came back to life.
As a kid, I wondered why humans would do such a thing in such a irresponsible and uncontrolled manner.
This video explores one of the most complex and unlikely wildlife recoveries ever attempted. The otters were not simply released—they were relocated through a multi-year operation involving six agencies across two countries. Animals were captured in Alaska from the last surviving populations on Amchitka Island and Prince William Sound, then transported by military aircraft into Checleset Bay in three separate releases: twenty-nine in nineteen sixty-nine, fourteen in nineteen seventy, and forty-six in nineteen seventy-two.
What makes the story even more extraordinary is why the relocation happened at all. Amchitka Island was being used as a nuclear testing site, and many of the otters were moved in part to avoid underground detonations. Conservation was, in some ways, a secondary outcome of a much larger geopolitical operation.
Witnessed.🇦🇺🥰
The early results were uncertain. Many animals did not survive the translocation, and the founding population may have dropped to fewer than thirty individuals before stabilizing. But what followed defied expectations. As otters established themselves, sea urchin populations collapsed, kelp forests regrew, and entire marine ecosystems reorganized.
We break down the science behind this transformation: how keystone predators regulate entire ecosystems, why kelp forests are critical to ocean health, and how a single species can restore biodiversity, fisheries, and even carbon storage at scale.
The aboriginal have to realize they can’t control nature , they say they honour and respect the otter in their ceremony yet want to cull them ,and carbon capture is import in the water helping other life in the ocean survive , nature is not meant to be control by humans ,we’re meant to live in it and respect nature sharing the space and only take care of it .
- The three-stage relocation of eighty-nine sea otters into British Columbia
- The near-collapse of the founding population before recovery
I will reject BC shell fish if hunting of Sea Otters is brought back. I have no trust of human commercial fisheries, whether it is indigenously run or not.
This is a war between healthy marine biology and human greed!
There is no other way to frame it.
- The large-scale return of kelp forests and marine biodiversity
This channel explores ecological restoration, rewilding, and the hidden systems that allow nature to rebuild itself.
Humans can learn to work new jobs. Governments should work to transition urchin harvesters displaced by the otters to new work. Pay their debts, buy back their urchin equipment.
#rewilding #seaotters #savetheocean #documentary #canadawildlife
I'm curious if there are areas of waters in the Atlantic where they have trouble with sea urchins. If these animals would benefit, I know they don't live on that side. I think it would be just interesting?
More User Perspectives
I have always loved these animals and to learn that they're even greater to nature than we thought
Beautiful ❤❤❤
I have had the pleasure of spotting more and more single and rafted otters along the northwest corner of Washington and Vancouver Island, BC over the past 17 years. I started kayaking in remote areas and noticed first one or two and then more. Also in more areas than ever before. The kelp forests in these areas are noticeably improving. It has been a genuine pleasure to see the successes of this program.
For those interested there is a similar story about ecosystem damage reversal due to the reintroduction of beavers in areas of Scotland also on Youtube.
I live on the east coast of North Vancouver Island. These little guys didn’t exist here until the last few years. It’s so wonderful to see them back! I worked in urchin harvesting and never saw a single sea otter between Telegraph Cove and Prince Rupert. My crab traps come up empty a little more often, but it’s worth it.
@buddywhatshisname522Otters and beavers are nature's eco engineers.
@LouiseCaulfieldWitnessed - sea otters on the east side of northern Vancouver island in Johnston strait. Also saw one otter at Port Renfrew Botanical Beach several years ago.
@larrydallen2202This is GREAT🤩😍!!!
@roeliezandee2825I feel like you brushed over what the otters have done for the herring and other “feeder” fish. I grew up in a small north Vancouver island town and watched the otter population grow. A couple years after what I could see as a healthy otter population we had our first herring spawn in recorded history and we have continued to see them. Herring feed EVERYTHING. It’s the single greatest success story I’ve ever seen. I’ve been saying the otters are amazing for our coast for years and it’s nice to see my theory backed by science
@adambastarache6697WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?
@Richardsimpkin-h4k2017 spike in losses for clam & urchin fisheries also inline with announcement that year of major new coastline protections & $ for conservation projects, not otters. Such an amazing vid, it made my day. Keep it up!
@tao.of.history8366❤❤❤
@kamiyan7350Every time humans want to “manage” an animal population, that population suffers. The otters don’t need to be managed to extinction again.
@zakkaryzoah1386Witnessed darn excellent doco now to get them spreading south again to Mexico there habitat before they was almost hunted to extinction
@garytnew7504Witness: every time I’ve heard a doctor tell a woman she can’t have kids (besides hysterectomies)
@LanSu11i3I live in a mountain village in Northern Greece called vermion 350 m attitude next to dense forest for agricultural reasons we have over 100 small man made lakes most of them live with their own water
The last 25 years after wild animal protection establish through laws many extinct animals came back small deers ,wolves, eagles and even bears , ligas and many small animals
The amazing is that we knew about those animals from the stories of our grandparents but there is one animal that even our grandparents didn't see in their lives and now is all over our lakes without human intervention, no one knows how ,the lakes are full of life fish,sweat water crabs frogs everything and the forest around them is very dense most of them are abandoned because we use 3-4 big lakes also full of life again
However oders appear out of nowhere and the population is thriving
I believe that this animals disappear from our mountain many years ago and it is a prove how nature thrives when humans are acting like guardians and not like conquerors
I give you big praise for offering a nuenced view point and not make it seem like its a black and white situation like a lot do.
@xardiodrack1798Before you cite shellfish, urchin and geoduck closures; you should have given up that pre-commercial eras had over 120,000 otters along the coast. To blame SOME commercial closures on less than 5% of a former population is not an even reportage. How are salmon and rock-fish doing as commercial fisheries ?
There are really good eco-stories: Wolves in Yellowstone bringing back rivers is another fantastic example.
Greed for pelts created a desert in the icean. Like how reintroducing beavers back onto barren land, sheep onto an island, goats onto scrub.
@whereswendy8544They are showing up all over the bc coast and u want find a crab 🦀 in your favorite place, they look pretty but there very destructive if not controlled.
@MM-ld6fjOne day this year I’m going to make it out there and to see the otters. I look forward to that.
@gordthompson9037i've watched a lot of video's on the topic these past months; it is absolutely stunning to see what the return of an apex predator can do..... makes you almost wonder if we as humans in our little human society also lost our fragile apex people
@P.C.vanderMeulthe otters were probably a Keystone species upon which all the other ocean life depended.
@louiselloyd1523This an encouraging message - that nature had a way of regenerating even the most devastating actions of human exploitation. Now, can humans become less predator and more cooperative with nature and its waters that are fundamental sources of life - including human life, if only intelligence about the inter-dependencies between water, sea plant life and sea creatures, including mammals such sea otters and humans
@jannetannleggett3832USA need sea otters on the west coast. To control sea urchin population
@superior54This is what the world needs: not war, not capitalism, not greed, not AI data centres, but healthy, vibrant ecosystems teeming with life.
@nickfoster9350Good to hear about the recovery
@robertgreno9942brilliant
witness
I live on vancouver island, and kayak all around it. Never new this story, but always found it a privilege when these beautiful creatures came to check me out. Even started to see them on the east coast a few years back now.
@bobseguin2195Human GREED is short-sighted, no thought about how their actions will affect the environment and the surrounding landscape. This still occurs in the U.S. today! As Gordon Grekko stated, "GREED is good!"
@dickieau67157k otters is so wrong, it must be.
I fish around the entire island and there are soooo many
There’s a ** ton of em around Vancouver island now. I’m surprised more of them aren’t ran over lol
@VanislandtrailblazerBasically Human fk everything up
@fargonthebraveScotland did something similar with the beavers. Beavers and Scotland were extinct from the 1500s because of over hunting.
In 2009 beavers were reintroduce into the Scottish Highlands and they recreated wetlands that the ecosystem was lacking.
Now there are over 1500 beavers living in Scotland. The beavers have enhanced the ecosystem brought back the water shed and the wetlands.
And now the first nations are whining about them! Soon you'll be able to buy their pelts again!
@Mike-q6b3zTrue story ❤
@Deb-l1nWonderful outcome. Hope things get sorted out for the local people.
Also look up the scheme in China that reintroduced the Przewalski's horses into an eroded, barren plain with amazing results.
Today on tik tok I saw video from Tofino, BC showing a pod of hundreds of lounging otters, just today. A whole crowd of them.
@1st1anarkissedWouldn't that be not long after Exxon/Mobil Valdez
@chrisangus463❤️❤️❤️
@designabeejHunting any species up to the point of extinction is just irresponsible it is not stewardship of the land. Many thanks to everyone involved in helping restore and maintain the eco system!
@newfiesgirlI live there and watch this happen
@halorailwhy do i think this is bull? ask russia
@DanielMcleod-l3mI grew up in a world where we would talk about beavers, otters, bison, whales, etc on the verge of extinction and some commercial hunting was still going on. As a kid, I wondered why humans would do such a thing in such a irresponsible and uncontrolled manner. Even until Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in the 80s, mass hunting was still going on.
Anyway, I am encouraged in my old age to see that scientists are being taken seriously and managing the return of historical wildlife.
Never forget natives are just as greedy as every one else, they just don't work for it, we do.
@grahamkearnon6682