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.
Egrane Brown
Susan Tone
Broker
c: 503.440.1648
e: egranebrown@gmail.com
Broker
c: 503.354.4072
e: susantone@nehalemtel.net
Maryann Sinkler
Andrea Mace
Geri Lane
Broker
c. 503.440.9280
e: maryanns@remax.net
Broker
c. 503-440-4024
e: Andrea.k.mace@remax.net
Broker
c: 503.480.9846
e: gerilane@remax.net
Hilary Herman
Shelley Parker
Broker
c: 503-791-4718
e: HilaryHerman@hotmail.com
Broker
c: 503-739-1977
e: Shelley.Parker@mail.com
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