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Haida Gwaii’s Sea Otters: Their extinction and resurgence
- Chiara Sala
- Aug 3
- 6 min read
By Chiara Sala
Posted on August 3, 2026
Cover Image Title: Otters
Cover Image by: Meghan Z
Classification: Digital Artwork
Specifications: Resized from 2550 x 3300 pixels
Year: 2026
Sea urchins eat kelp. Sea otters eat sea urchins. What eats sea otters? Well, many things actually: orcas, sharks, wolves, bears.1 But their biggest predators were people, who often did not even eat them. We wanted their pelts.2
Before Europeans arrived on the shores of North America, the Haida and the sea otters lived in harmony, sharing sea urchins, clams, crabs, and abalone.3 Hunting helped prevent sea otters from overpopulating the waters, and clam beds allowed the Haida to raise clams that they didn’t have to share with hungry otters.2
The arrival of the Europeans brought with it an insatiable demand for pelts, including those of the sea otter. The trade of sea otter furs started with Russians in the mid-1700s and quickly spread throughout Europe.4 Sea otter populations along the west coast were decimated; the last sea otter in British Columbia was shot in 1929, and sea otters became locally extinct.2 The remaining population, found in the waters surrounding the Aleutian Islands, was granted protection by the 1911 North Pacific Fur Seal Convention. This convention, signed by Japan, America, Russia, and Great Britain (on behalf of Canada), banned pelagic(open ocean) seal hunting and protected all marine mammals with valuable furs.5
The convention came too late for Haida Gwaii’s sea otter population, as it had been hunted to extinction in the early 1800s, and with their extinction came a variety of unexpected changes to their natural habitat – kelp forests.
Sea otters are a keystone species, a species necessary for a healthy ecosystem, and are the apex predators of their coastal habitats.8 Their diet consists of large numbers of the various shellfish, especially sea urchins, which they must consume to maintain their body temperature. Unlike most marine mammals, sea otters do not have blubber and therefore must eat 25% of their body weight every day to stay warm.9
Like otters, sea urchins are voracious eaters although they have an entirely different diet. They are omnivores with algae being their main food source, though they do eat other animals on occasion, and one of their favourite foods is kelp.10
Without sea otters to keep urchin numbers in check, urchin populations exploded, and the kelp forests they inhabit were decimated.
Sea urchins chew through the stipes (stem-like structures that provide support for the kelp) and holdfasts (which do exactly what the name implies, hold fast to the ocean floor), causing the kelp strands to be detached from the ocean floor and float away.9,11 The desolate stretches of ocean floor left in their wakes are known as urchin barrens.3 Because sea urchins can survive for years without food, any kelp that does start to regenerate is mown down before it has the chance to survive.
The loss of sea otters, and consequently kelp, was damaging to almost everything that relied on kelp forests for shelter. Shellfish, and the people that harvested them, were the only ones that benefitted. Abalone, clams, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers were more plentiful and grew larger without sea otters to prey upon them.3
For the Haida, many of these shellfish are of cultural value. Meanwhile in the wider world, shellfish have high economic value.2 This has created controversy over the return of sea otters to the islands as some are afraid that they will eat the shellfish that the Haida rely upon for food and money.3
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in an arms race as both countries fought to create bigger and more effective nuclear bombs. A part of the arms race included testing the weapons created to see which were the most effective.15 In the 1960s and 1970s, tests were conducted on Amchitka Island in Alaska, home to the some of the last remaining sea otter populations.14
Amchitka’s sea otters were quite popular by the time the tests began, partly due to a TV series about them. As a result, no one wanted them to be killed by a nuclear blast.14 Responding to this, conservationists managed to convince the U.S. Atomic Energy Committee to relocate the otters before the third and largest test occurred.9,14 A collection of Canadian and American government organizations collaborated to release 89 sea otters into the waters surrounding Vancouver Island.9
Although not all of the relocations were successful, and not all the otters survived, there were enough to start to repopulate the coast of Vancouver Island. By 1995, those initial 89 sea otters had become 1500. Haida Gwaii was not one of the release locations, and so their waters continued to be empty of sea otters for a while longer.
Sea otter sighting near Haida Gwaii began as early as the 1970s, although they were few and far between with only seven sightings occurring before 2001.9 Only male sea otters were seen near Haida Gwaii until the mid 2010s when a female and her pup were spotted in southern Haida Gwaii, proving that the sea otters were there to stay. As of 2019, there were 13 sea otters living in Haida Gwaii, with at least one mom and pup pair in the group.3
While conservationists are excited for what this could mean for the health of kelp forests, shellfish harvesters are worried. In areas where sea otters have re-established themselves, shellfish numbers have dropped significantly, and sea urchin numbers are too low to be harvestable.2 Because of this, the Haida are working with Parks Canada and a variety of other organizations to ensure a smooth return for the sea otters.3
In 2020, the Council of the Haida Nation and Gwaii Haanas initiated a community project known as X̱aayda Gwaay.yaay Ḵuugaay Gwii Sdiihltl’lx̱a(The Sea Otters Return to Haida Gwaii).3 The aims of the project are to create community conversation centered around coexistence with sea otters and use the existing knowledge to understand how sea otters will change the ecosystems they will be sharing with people.3 There is a strong emphasis on community engagement and co-operation in recreating the relationship that the Haida used to share with sea otters. Haida Gwaii’s sea otter population is expected to increase slowly as the years go by, and the Haida Council intends to be prepared for when it has reached capacity.2,3 They are using information from other Indigenous communities that have had to adjust to the reintroduction of sea otters in the past, as well as modern technology to design and implement the best techniques to ensure that both humans and sea otters can live in harmony.3
Preparations include conversations with people from all over Haida Gwaii and the use of computer models to simulate the potential outcomes of a variety of sea otter managements methods.2,3 These methods range from the use of a limited hunt to non-lethal deterrents placed around shellfish harvesting areas as well as the use of tradition clams beds, which allow the Haida to raise shellfish outside the range of hungry sea otters.3
Hopefully with proper planning and implementation, sea otters will bring balance back to their traditional habitats and the Haida will continue to sustain themselves on locally harvested shellfish.
References:
Curland, J. (n.d.) Sea Otters. Defenders of Wildlife. https://defenders.org/sites/default/files/publications/sea_otter_faqs.pdf
Badelt, B. (2024, March 01). The otter, the urchin and the Haida. Canadian Geographic. https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/the-otter-the-urchin-and-the-haida/
X̱aayda Gwaay.yaay Ḵuugaay Gwii Sdiihltl’lx̱a – The Sea Otters Return to Haida Gwaii. (2022). Council of the Haida Nation. https://www.haidanation.ca/stewardship/marine/sea-otter-return/
Canadian History: Pre-Confederation – Fur Trade and Empires. (2015). BCcampus Open Education. https://opentextbc.ca/preconfederation/chapter/13-3-fur-trade-and-empires/
Bailey, T. A. (1935). The North Pacific Sealing Convention of 1911. Pacific Historical Review, 4(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.2307/3633240
Sea otter pelts hanging out to dry in Oyhut, Grays Harbor County, late 1800s [Photograph]. (1800). University of Washington, Special Collections. https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/social/id/769/
Durand, B. (2021). [Purple sea urchins eating kelp in Monterey Bay, California]. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/want-to-help-california-kelp-forests-eat-sea-urchins
Williams, P. J., Hooten, M. B., Esslinger, G. G., Womble, J. N., Bodkin, J. L. & Bower, M. R.. (11 April 2019). The rise of an apex predator following deglaciation. Diversity and Distributions, 25(6), 895 - 908. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12908
Blood, D. A.. (March 2002). Sea Otter. Once extinct in Canada this Threatened species has been successfully reintroduced. Branch of Biodiversity, Ministry of Water, Air & Land Protection. https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/seaotter.pdf
Chetan-Welsh, H.. (n.d.). Sea urchins: Strange and spiny wonders of the ocean. Natural History Museum. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/sea-urchins-strange-and-spiny-wonders-of-the-ocean.html
Morrow, M.. (n.d.). Brown Algae. LibreTexts: Biology. https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Botany/A_Photographic_Atlas_for_Botany_%28Morrow%29/04%3A_Protists/4.03%3A_Brown_Algae
Goldman, J. G.. (23 October 2019). Haida Gwaii’s kelp forests disappeared. Here’s how they’re being brought back to life. The Narwhal. https://thenarwhal.ca/haida-gwaiis-kelp-forests-disappeared-heres-how-theyre-being-brought-back-to-life/
Ruam-Suryan, K. L., Pritcher, K., & Lamy, R... (26 August 2004).Sea Otter, Enhydra lutris, Sightings off Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, 1972-2002. The Canadian Field Naturalist, 118(2), 270 - 272.
McGrath, J.. (27 December 2023). How nuclear tests in the ‘70s led to today’s thriving otter population on the Pacific west coast. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/amchitka-island-nuclear-test-otter-relocation-alaska-washington-oregon-cannikin-2023-12
Rozell, N. (18 January 2001). The Unknown Legacy of Alaska's Atomic Tests. University of Alaska Fairbanks. https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/unknown-legacy-alaskas-atomic-tests
Newman, M.. (17 July 2012). Send in the sea otters to help save California’s North Coast [Photograph]. Los Angeles Times.
[ Writing Editor: Sahana Prabu ]
[ Writing Editor's Notes: "Haida Gwaii’s Sea Otters: Their Extinction and Resurgence" is an exceptional piece that connects the past, present, and future. The author shows a fantastic understanding of context, from the fur trade to the Cold War (anthropogenic activities), and takes the reader through the resulting ecosystem consequences with incredible clarity. ]
