How to Watch Sea Otters in Morro Bay (Without The Sea Otters Watching You!)

June 18, 2021 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program ca friends of the sea otter Gena Bentall how to help sea otters marine mammal marine mammal protection morro bay protect sea otters sea otter sea otter savvy sea otter watching sea otters in morro bay seaotter where do sea otters live?where to find sea otters wildlife disturbance Be Sea Otter Savvy Guest post

The best sea otter picture is one where the sea otters aren’t looking at the camera because they don’t even know you’re there. The photographer who captured this shot stayed quiet and kept far enough away from the otters so they could carry on resting, as they need to do to stay healthy.

This blog is part of our series, Be Sea Otter Savvy, written by Gena Bentall, Director and Senior Scientist for Sea Otter Savvy. As COVID-19 travel restrictions begin to ease after more than a year, many people are heading to California’s Central Coast. Morro Bay’s beautiful scenery and wildlife continue to draw visitors and locals to its shores. While we’re there, watching the waves wash over the sand and the sea otters play, we can do our part to help keep this incredible place as gorgeous, healthy, and wild as it is today for years to come. In this …

Be Sea Otter Savvy: A New Perspective on Sea Otter Photography

July 31, 2020 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program Gena Bentall marine mammal act MBNEP morro bay morro bay national estuary program responsible wildlife viewing sea otter Sea otter biologist sea otter savvy wildlife disturbance wildlife in Morro Bay wildlife photography wildlife storytelling Be Sea Otter Savvy Blog Posts Guest post

You can make a difference by following ethical wildlife photography practices and scrutinizing wildlife photos carefully for signs of disturbance. Photo by Gena Bentall.

This post is part of our blog series, Be Sea Otter Savvy, written by Gena Bentall, Director and Senior Scientist at Sea Otter Savvy. Posts in this series include tips on how to help sea otters thrive through ethical stewardship, as well as information about sea otters’ behavior, biology, and their role in the estuary and ocean ecosystems. A New Perspective on Sea Otter Photography You will soon be wondering what has directed my attention so intensively on photographers. In the past the field of wildlife photography was more of a specialist field—you had to have an expensive …

Your Top Blog Posts of 2019

December 27, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program eelgrass Gena Bentall monarch butterflies morro bay morro bay estuary nudibranchs Robin Agarwal sea lions in Morro Bay sea otters sea slugs top blog posts 2019 wet weather wildlife wildlife spotlight Blog Posts

During 2019, you tuned in to the Estuary Program blog to follow field work projects, to learn about local wildlife, to track the health of the bay, and to see how you can help the estuary and watershed. Today, we’re sharing the posts readers visited most often this year across these four categories. If you haven’t read them yet, now’s a great time to catch up! Top Field Work Post Field Updates February 2019: Wet weather, Eelgrass Restoration, and Creek Monitoring This post shares rainfall totals, details the process of sediment sampling and analysis that we use, and explains …

Be Sea Otter Savvy 3: More Than Just a Pretty Face

October 25, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program brent hughes california sea otter dr. james estes elkhorn slough fur trade Gena Bentall kelp forest keystone species monterey bay monterey predator diversity project morro bay otter-star project sea otter sea otter extinction sea otter savvy sea star wasting disease sea star wasting syndrome southern sea otter trophic cascade urchin barren what is a keystone species Be Sea Otter Savvy Blog Posts Guest post

This is the third post to our blog series, Be Sea Otter Savvy, written by Gena Bentall, Director and Senior Scientist at Sea Otter Savvy. Posts in this series include tips on how to help sea otters thrive and information about sea otters’ behavior, biology, and their role in the estuary and ocean ecosystems. When I was a little girl holding my mom’s hand on the shore in Pacific Grove in 1970, looking out at two sea otters rising and falling on a gentle swell, I knew them only from their faces in books. I knew nothing of the heroic …

Be Sea Otter Savvy 2: Guidelines for Observing Sea Otters Safely

August 23, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program ca friends of the sea otter Gena Bentall how to help sea otters marine mammal marine mammal act marine mammal protection morro bay protect sea otters sea otter sea otter savvy seaotter where to find sea otters where to find sea otters in morro bay wildlife disturbance Be Sea Otter Savvy Guest post

This is the second post to our blog series, Be Sea Otter Savvy, written by Gena Bentall, sea otter biologist and Program Coordinator for Sea Otter Savvy. Future posts in this series will include tips on how to help sea otters thrive and information about sea otters’ behavior, biology, and their role in the estuary and ocean ecosystems. When humans and sea otters overlap Disturbance to the natural behavioral patterns of sea otters can occur anywhere that human marine recreation activities and sea otter habitat overlap. Locations like harbors and bays, with easy access to the ocean and calm, …

Meet Sea Otter Savvy

July 19, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program #beseaottersavvy #respecthenap #seaottersavvy be sea otter savvy friends of the sea otter Gena Bentall marine mammal act morro bay morro bay estuary morro bay sea otters respect the nap save sea otters sea otter sea otter awareness sea otter pups sea otter recovery sea otter savvy sea otters southern sea otters where to see sea otters in Morro Bay wildlife watching Be Sea Otter Savvy Blog Posts Guest post

Gena Bentall drives a boat during a sea otter study.

This is an introductory post to our new blog series, Be Sea Otter Savvy, written by Gena Bentall, a sea otter biologist and Program Coordinator for Sea Otter Savvy. Future posts in this series will include tips on how to help sea otters thrive and information about sea otters’ behavior, biology, and their role in the estuary and ocean ecosystems. Why should we care about sea otters? Our news is filled with the dire predictions of climate change and daily reminders of national and global discord. Our daily lives focus on the challenges of providing for ourselves and our …