Nuclear sea otters: A wildlife refugee story

Join me among the crashing waves of the Pacific Northwest coast in Washington State.

This unique wildlife story starts, not there, but with a nuclear explosion, literally. During the late 60s and early 70s, three atomic weapons were tested on Amchitka Island in a remote part of Alaska. The blast registered a 7.0 on the Richter scale. over 10,000 fish were killed in the island’s lakes, streams and ponds.

But thanks to a little imagination, right before the nuclear test, a last minute program was deployed to capture and save some of the sea otters. Several hundred of the sea otters were quickly relocated out of harm’s way to the north pacific coast of Washington State and Oregon.

Now, over 50 years later, biologists are trying to figure out what is the fallout from this storied otter translocation . Has the nuclear otter evacuation from 50 years ago been a success? And what are the ecological ripple effects?

This is a story of second chances for an impossibly adorable sea creature, and how their mere presence can support countless other species, and even help save us from climate change. 

Links to films I’ve hosted if you’d like to learn more:

The Kelp Highway

The Blue Forest

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