We are pleased to announce the next edition of the the SMM Seminar Editor’s Select Series. This series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn and ask questions. All are welcome.
Guest, Shawn Larson of Seattle Aquarium presents: “Reintroductions have saved the sea otter throughout North America: why should we care?”
July 15, 2021 5 PM PDT (12 AM UTC)
About this talk:
Sea otters were once abundant throughout the nearshore of the North Pacific. The maritime fur trade left few remnant populations with low genetic diversity. Subsequent reintroductions of otters resulted in several new populations in North America. We sampled sea otters genetically from Bering Island to California to evaluate genetic diversity, population structure and geneflow. Genetic diversity was the highest in reintroduced populations, population structure was greatest between California and all other groups, and geneflow was evident between all populations except for those at the ends of the range. The reintroductions are arguably the greatest success in sea otter conservation.
Dr. Larson shared details about this work during this 1-hour presentation followed by a Q&A session. All are welcome to participate.
About the presenter:
Shawn Larson, PhD, She/Her pronouns, is Curator of Conservation Research at the Seattle Aquarium. Shawn has been working at the Seattle Aquarium since 1995. Her main duties are leading the rehabilitation program, the water quality/research lab and the conservation research program which includes 10 long term ecological monitoring projects on sea otters, Salish Sea whales, sharks, temperate water rocky reefs, Hawaiian coral reefs, and microplastics. She has been studying marine mammal physiology, genetics, population biology and ecology for 27 years and has published several scientific papers and chapters on marine mammals and was lead editor on a 2015 book published by Elsevier titled Sea Otter Conservation.
Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO
One comment on Editors’ Select Panel on July 15, 2021: Reintroductions have saved the sea otter throughout North America: why should we care?
This looks great I love sea otters!