Sea otter at mouth of Columbia River!

Sea otter - Copyright Bryant Austin

On Thursday, March 12, 2009, my boss, Jen Zamon and I were doing a monthly survey of seabirds and marine mammals from the North Head Lighthouse in Cape Disappointment State Park on the coast of Washington, just north of the Columbia River.

As I swung the scope through our survey area, I saw an animal floating on it's back, rubbing it's face and body, rolling along. I immediately thought "That's a sea otter", but at the same time thought "No way, they're so rare here, I must be seeing a river otter". But I kept the scope focused on the animal and saw it's lighter colored head, broad and fuzzy, the grooming and rolling behavior and knew it was a sea otter. My boss confirmed it and we documented as much about it's location, behavior and any other observations that we could. Unfortunately we didn't get any good pictures of the animal through the scope, but nonetheless, very exciting!

This sighting may be the first one in this area since 1913!

Read about it here:

http://www.dailyastorian.com/Main.asp?SectionID=2&ArticleID=59218