By snacking on sea urchins, they keep urchin populations in check ... the blubber that other sea mammals have built in) sea otters eat a quarter of their body weight in food every day.

Despite their low numbers, sea otters consume voracious kelp-eating sea urchins at a high ... the sea otters alone could not control urchin populations. Sunflower stars play an integral role ...

If there are too many sea urchins, they can eat up all the kelp, leading to the destruction of underwater forests. Otters keep the sea urchin population under control, allowing kelp to thrive.

Want to help California’s kelp forests? Eat sea urchins. Want to help California’s kelp forests? Eat sea urchins. To save kelp forests, scientists try breeding sea stars To save kelp forests ...

She believes it was the return of native sea otters, in greater numbers. “Given that the of population size is about 100 and 120 currently in Elkhorn Slough, they can probably eat somewhere ...

But at California’s Elkhorn Slough, a reserve where about 120 southern sea otters live, the cute apex predators have led to green crabs’ demise by eating up to 120,000 of the invasive species ...