The fact that sea otters are living in this bay at all is an incredible tale of recovery for a species once hunted into oblivion for its lush fur. Now numbering in the thousands, their ferocious appetite is dramatically altering large parts of the West Coast ecosystem. The history of the otter is unique in that its disappearance along Canada's West Coast coincided with rapid population growth of non-Indigenous people. Within about 100 years, the fur trade had extinguished itself because there were so few of the animals left along the West Coast. Sea otters were hunted up and down the West Coast of North America for their valuable pelts beginning in the late 1700s.

Source: CBC News August 03, 2020 08:00 UTC