sea otter - fun to look at but have destroyed all my clam havens...
posted by a Turning Gurdy @ 29.1.06
6 comments
As the Gurdy turns.....
Please note that background colors fail to display properly using IE browser, use "mozilla" for best results. Commentary of tracks behind me - meant to keep family & friends aware I'm still with em... It's for fun and play on "idle" times as there's no internet where I work . .
29 January 2006
About Me
- Name: a Turning Gurdy
- Location: Sitka, Alaska, United States
"J" of all trades, master of some.... a fish on the deep...
6 Comments:
http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/learning/education/mammalinfo/seaotter.asp
What I want to know is how they leave behind "whole" unshattered clam shells ? - all the search info suggests they smash the shell to get the meat.. but I can show you thousands of intact "open" shells after they consume it.. ?
Are you sure that it is the otters that consumed the contents of the shells and not a star?
We've ALWAYs had "Starfish" working on clams - throughout my lifetime & have witness'd fluctuations in starfish density per differing areas... never have we experienced such total elimination of clam beds since the "re-introduction" of Sea Otter... and evidenced also by the proliferation as they expand "downward" the coast of Baranof Island - first North of Town, couple years later All of Sitka Sound and recently (last 4 years) South of town..
Might also report loss of "shallow" dungeness crab availability and abalone..
And don't tell me it's octopus doin either...
I've personally dug very specific clam beaches over the last 40-some years, all locations.
I recently heard that it is only some otters who bash the shells with rocks... others have learned to open shells with their teeth and yet others are able to twist the shells open... maybe that explains the increase in unbroken clam shells?
Am looking forward to testing this "twist" theory... hmmm.....
And here's the evidence !
http://s70.photobucket.com/albums/i93/jpborg/animate/?action=view¤t=d784e811.jpg
Thanks Ann-ony-mous !
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