This past weekend I ventured to the coast for a whale watching trip in Morro Bay, and while I didn’t view any dolphin mega pods, the marine mammals certainly did not disappoint. We watched two gray whales for almost an hour, were visited for a few fleeting moments by a harbor porpoise, laughed with the numerous barking sea lions, and enjoyed the almost unbearable cuteness of the sea otters. After the boat ride, I ventured up to San Simeon to catch the tail-end of the elephant seal season and saw two magnificent bulls do battle.

A collection of photos from my marine mammal encounters this weekend:

Sea otter and pup relaxing in Morro Bay (photo by Beth Pratt)

Sea otter close-up (Photo by Beth Pratt)

Elephant seals on a San Simeon beach in California (photo by Beth Pratt)

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Thar she blows!” A surfacing gray whale. (photo by Beth Pratt)

Gray whale making its northbound journey (photo by Beth Pratt)

Photo by Donald Quintana

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Photo: Jamie LeDent

As a cash-strapped college student, one of my favorite ways to pass the time (ahem, apart from studying) was to watch the sea otters from the spectacular cliffs of West Cliff Drive—I’d sometimes spend hours watching them fluffing up their fur with their paws, waving to passersby (true story), wrapping themselves in kelp or holding hands to avoid drifting apart, and breaking open sea urchins by whacking them against a rock on their chest.

Little did I know that in addition to providing the cutest entertainment around, these otters were playing a powerful role in tackling climate change.

How Sea Otters Fight Climate Change

Sea otters love eating sea urchins—scavengers known to devastate kelp forests when populations are left unchecked. More sea otters mean more kelp, and since kelp is particularly good at capturing carbon through photosynthesis, this also means less climate-change inducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

According to new a study published in the journal “Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment,” by James Estes and Chris Wilmers—scientists at UC Santa Cruz—kelp beds with a healthy otter population absorb 12 times as much carbon dioxide as beds without otters present.

This is just one example of the tangible benefits of living in a world with strong and healthy ecosystems. Sea otters, brought back from the brink of extinction and still in jeopardy today, provide enormous benefits for the future of our planet.

“Right now, all the climate change models and proposed methods of sequestering carbon ignore animals. But animals the world over, working in different ways to influence the carbon cycle, might actually have a large impact,” said Wilmers. “If ecologists can get a better handle on what these impacts are, there might be opportunities for win-win conservation scenarios, whereby animal species are protected or enhanced, and carbon gets sequestered.”

The Difference Between Sea Otters and Presidential Candidates

This summer has been the season that climate change has become real to many Americans. From severe heat waves, devastating wildfires, catastrophic floods, serious crop damage, and destructive pests expanding their range; people and wildlife have suffered the impacts that scientists have predicted for years.

In reviewing independent data, National Wildlife Federation experts concluded that the weather of 2012 has broken records. The past 12 months were the warmest ever recorded in the U.S., with more than 113 million people in areas under extreme heat advisories as of June 29. July was the warmest July on record and the warmest month ever recorded.

Despite how devastating as all of these impacts have been, the presidential candidates have not done a good job of publicly articulating their plans for addressing the climate crisis. At this point, it seems we have a better idea of what sea otters are doing to reduce carbon pollution than what the next leader of our country will do.

The first presidential debate is on October 3rd and this is the time to hear how President Obama and Governor Romney plan to address climate change.

Climate change is the biggest threat to wildlife today–speak up to make sure it’s on the agenda at the upcoming debates.

Here is my celebration of two great things about this world, wildlife and puppies, combined into one. Commence: Wildlife puppies!

Note: All of the below images were donated by photographers who entered the National Wildlife Photo Contest, which is currently open for people to enter, vote for and share photos.

Wolf Pup

Antarctic Fur Seal Pup

And another one…

Grey Fox Pup

>> Adopt your own wildlife puppy and help National Wildlife Federation make a difference for wildlife

African Wild Dog Puppies

Harbor Seal Pup

And one more…

Red Fox Pup

Meerkat Pups

Coyote Pup

Sea Lion Pups

Two more sea lion pups, trying to get a sea turtle to play.

Bat Pup

Sea Otter Pup

Pupfish

Ways to Celebrate National Puppy Day

The unofficial holiday National Puppy Day was designed to encourage the adoption of orphaned puppies and dogs in shelters across the country, so this Friday…

• Consider making your next pet one you rescue from a shelter. Search Petfinder for dogs of all ages.
• Not able to make room for a new hound in your home? Donate money, supplies or time to a local shelter.
• Want to help National Wildlife Federation protect wildlife puppies? Symbolically adopt a wild animal baby.

And lastly, in repayment for some amazing photo research help from my coworker (and because I couldn’t resist)…

Sleepy Puppy

Now scientists say their numbers are falling for new reasons that aren’t fully understood:

“This year was an alarming number of white shark attacks that we identified,” says Dr. Michael Murray, a Monterey Bay Aquarium veterinarian. “I think the jury’s still out on, ‘a’ what it means and ‘b’ why it happens.”

It’s puzzling because the sharks don’t eat the otters, but one bite is enough to kill the furry creatures. It’s one reason for a worrying decline in the number of California sea otters.

The latest count of this threatened species shows their population dropped to just 2,711, a decline of 3.6 percent. The number of sea otter pups, which represent the future of the species, is down 11 percent.

But sharks are only part of the problem. Otters are also dying of heart failure:

Heart disease could be linked to the otter’s voracious appetite that makes it vulnerable to toxic runoff from land, says Tim Tinker of the U.S. Geological Survey, who tracks the otters’ food supply.

“Disease causing parasites are going to end up in the ocean there. And sea otters are at the top of the food chain,” Tinker said.

Pollution is only the most recent threat to sea otters posed by humans. They were hunted to near-extinction by the early 20th century before an international ban on hunting, conservation efforts, and reintroduction programs allowed sea otters to rebound.

Learn more about sea otters at NWF’s Ranger Rick.

Over at The New Republic’s The Vine, Brad Plumer discusses how sea otters make the case for capping carbon pollution & allowing trading of pollution permits:

Let’s say Congress enacted a cap-and-trade system and pollution permits were selling for about $20 a ton. If [scientist Chris] Wilmers is right and a healthy sea otter population could sequester ten million tons of carbon, that’d be worth $200 million. So polluters might decide that it’s cheaper to fund sea otter preservation programs than cut power use (at least in the short term), and new offset projects could get approved. Voila: There’s suddenly money to try this sea otter strategy. (Obviously you’d need to have regulators make sure these offset projects are actually working.)

On the other hand, if your national energy policy just consists of a bunch of flat regulations and subsidies for different energy sources, then this whole sea otter business is going to get ignored. Sure, maybe Congress will decide that sea otter preservation is something worth funding directly, but waiting for the legislature to bankroll worthwhile carbon-reduction projects is an awfully sluggish and inflexible way to do business. (Plus, who knows, maybe the urchin lobby steps into the fray.) Right now, Congress is leaning toward this regulation-and-subsidy approach to energy. But there’s an excellent case for a more flexible market-based system. Just ask the otters.

You really otter act now (sorry, had to say it) & tell your senators we need clean energy legislation with a cap on carbon pollution.

Photo via Flickr’s MikeBaird