Hello readers. Welcome to #FactFriday on CleanbuildVoices!

We have another jaw-dropping fact for you to ponder over the weekend: sea otters (enhydra lutris) are eco-warriors too!

Yes. Those cute little furry animals that sometimes float on their backs have an exceptionally huge role to play in the fight against climate change.

As keystone species, sea otters have significant effects on the coastal marine ecosystems that they inhabit because they help in maintaining healthy seagrass beds and kelp forests.

Why is this important? well, seagrass beds and kelp forests sequester carbon. As a matter of fact, coastal ecosystems that are rich with marine plants like kelps, seagrass, and mangroves, sequester more carbon than land forests.

Now, here’s the tea. Sea otters eat animals like sea urchins that feed on kelp and the reefs on which they grow. This means kelp forests will be destroyed if sea otters do not eat sea urchins and this, in turn, will have an effect on the environment because there won’t be kelps to help sequester carbon.

Unfortunately, sea otters are impacted by most of the climate change causes like pollution (especially oil spills in seas, and other factors such as direct exploitation, habitat loss, etc., are also causing a decreasing sea otter population.

So, to keep our climate-critical ecosystems more resilient, we need to ensure that kelp-eating creatures are kept in check by sea otters and this can only be achieved if we prioritize the health of sea otters and their larger habitat.

We need thriving sea otter populations to help fight against the climate crisis but destructive activities like oil and gas exploitation are leading to their decline.

Thus, we must protect the sea otter habitat and eliminate other stressors to help our natural allies in our fight to combat climate change and build ecosystem resilience.