An ornery, board-jacking sea otter is terrorizing surfers off the coast of Santa Cruz. An effort is underway to capture the creature.
In the wake of mounting incidents — which were first viewed with amusement — federal and state wildlife officials have decided they need to remove the young otter from the wild, before it hurts someone — or itself.Tuesday morning along West Cliff Drive warning surfers of an “aggressive sea otter” in the area and to enter the water at their own risk.
Five years ago, there was an otter in Monterey Bay that approached kayaks. That otter, Fujii said, had probably been fed illegally by people — a common trigger for this kind of aggressive behavior.But here’s where things get a little weird: When researchers got it in for observation, they realized it was pregnant. She gave birth. And that pup — which they tagged and have followed since they released her into the wild — is now the surfboard thief.
Instead, like other otters, she spends most of her time feeding, floating, swimming and napping on the surface of the kelp forests along the Santa Cruz coastline. She has been known to travel a bit too; Fujii and her colleagues have tracked her swimming a bit north of the bay a few times.Fujii said female otters gestate for about six months and then keep their young for another six months before weaning them.
Sea otter bite marks are seen on a surfboard after an incident in which a surfer was scared off by the animal’s aggressive behavior. McConnell said that although hazing techniques had initially worked with the otter, they “were only temporarily effective.”
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