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10A • March 9, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com Recovering the sea otter ity for the area. They don’t swim north or south, possibly because of sharks, Bailey said. Occasion- ally, a few stray sea otters, prob- ably from British Columbia, are seen on the Columbia River and the north Oregon Coast. Sea otters are a “keystone species,” that significantly af- fects the structure and function of the ecological environment surrounding them, Bailey said. Because they eat the sea urchins that graze on kelp, the kelp for- ests — and everything that de- pends on kelp — thrive when sea otters are around. “So their effect on the environ- ment is huge,” Bailey said. Kelp forests, which are limited in Oregon, capture and store car- bon, create nutrients and increase biological productivity by pro- tecting larvae and juveniles from waves. “Just like the forest on land,” he added. “The question is, without sea otters what’s the health of the Or- egon near shore system?” Bailey asked. Oregon Shores has joined coastal tribes, researchers and oth- ers in organizing the Elakha Alli- ance to work on returning sea ot- ters to Oregon. But such an effort is fraught with variables, Bailey admitted. “Returning a species to the wild is not an easy task or a cer- tain task,” said Bailey, comparing the project to the three-decade ef- fort to bring the California condor back. “In the end, nature bats last…. Despite what we think we might do, we may not be able to do any- thing,” Bailey said. Repeated attempts to reverse the disappearance By Nancy McCarthy Cannon Beach Gazette Once upon a time, there were sea otters on the Oregon coast. Thousands of them. Places were named after them: Otter Rock, Otter Point. Their population stretched from northern Japan to Mexico. “They were really important to the culture, the diet and the life ways of the native peoples that were here, and it had been that way for thousands of years,” said Bob Bailey, a board member of Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition and retired director of Oregon’s Coastal Management Program. Bailey spoke about the otters’ disappearance and a current ef- fort to bring them back during the Sharing the Coast Conference in Cannon Beach March 2. Otters were important in sus- taining the coastal ecological sys- tem that, in turn, supported the people living on the Oregon coast, Bailey said. “They were important culturally as well as ecologically.” But otters also were valuable for their fur, and, from the 1740s through the mid-1800s, Russian, British and American hunters trapped them. “There were 12,000 to 15,000 otters a year being taken off the northwest coast,” Bailey said. In all, an estimated 300,000- 500,000 sea otters were killed. By the time John Jacob Astor’s NANCY MCCARTHY/FOR CANNON BEACH GAZETTE Bob Bailey, a board member of Oregon Shores Conservation Co- alition and retired director of Oregon’s Coastal Management Pro- gram. fur-hunting company showed up in Astoria in 1810, sea otters were already scarce, Bailey said.”In a very short time these animals were turned into an industrial commod- ity and virtually wiped out.” An effort to bring back the sea otter occurred in 1970 and 1971 when 93 animals were moved from the Aleutian Islands and re- leased at Redfish Rocks, Port Or- ford and Cape Arago in Oregon. Although they remained a few years, eventually the population disappeared for reasons still un- known, Bailey said. However, sea otters still swim on the southern California coast, Washington’s Olympic Coast, around Vancouver Island in Brit- ish Columbia and in southeast Alaska. In California, the population is steady at 3,100, which is at capac- Retired naval officer shares maritime history at museum The Cannon Beach Histo- ry Center and Museum wel- comes marine archaeologist Chris Dewey on Thursday, March 15, at 4 p.m. Retired naval officer Dew- ey teaches archaeology and anthropology at Clatsop Com- munity College, and President of the Maritime Archaeolog- ical Society. Headquartered in Astoria, the society was created to help document and share maritime history with the public. Dewey will discuss the tools, techniques, and strate- gies used to discover and in- vestigate shipwrecks and their histories. The Cannon Beach History Center and Museum is a pri- vate nonprofit that endeavors to make history available to Marty Giguiere Owner/Principal Broker c: 503.440.3202 f: 877.812.1126 e: alainagiguiere@mac.com Owner/Broker c: 503.440.7676 o: 503.436.1777 e: mr007@pacifi er.com The most active volcano in the Northwest The talk in the “The World of Haystack Rock” series features Bill Chadwick, re- search professor at Oregon State Univer- sity’s Hatfield Marine Science Center. His presentation, titled “Axial Seamount: The Most Active Volcano in the Pacific North- west,” takes place Wednesday, March 14. The free lecture is the latest installment of a series held the second Wednesday of each month 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Cannon Beach Library (131 N. Hemlock St.). Chadwick’s research interests include investigating how magma is supplied and stored at active volcanoes, how lava is em- placed during submarine eruptions, and how underwater eruptions affect the chem- istry and ecosystems of hydrothermal vent sites. The final talk this season, taking place April 11, will be “Life in the Coastal Edge,” with Katie Voelke, director of the North Coast Land Conservancy. The “World of Haystack Rock” se- ries is sponsored by the Friends of Hay- stack Rock. The Friends group supports the Haystack Rock Awareness Program in cooperation with the City of Cannon Beach, promoting the preservation and protection of the intertidal life and birds that inhabit the Marine Garden and the Or- egon Islands National Wildlife Refuge at Haystack Rock. Polar climate saga comes alive On March 18 at 1 p.m. producer-director Pamela Theodotou presents “Guli- ya,” a climate film on the Byrd Polar and Climate Re- search Center. “Byrd 1933” will also be shown Monday, March all by offering donation-based admission. All lectures are free and open to the pub- lic. The museum is located at 1387 S. Spruce St. in midtown Cannon Beach. For more in- formation visit www.cbhisto- ry.org. Alaina Giguiere OREGON SHORES CONSERVATION COALITION Map of Axial Seamount. 19, at 4 p.m. at the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum. Beverages will be served. Suggested donations for both performances are $5. For more information, contact 310-804-9753. 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