Dining at the seashore

California sea otters are being removed from the endangered species list.

Surprisingly, this has the eco-wackos in a complete dither. One would think they’d be overjoyed.

[snip]
For reasons still a mystery to scientists, the number of sea otters killed by sharks has soared in recent years, with great whites as the leading suspects.

“It’s been very dramatic,” said Tim Tinker, a Santa Cruz-based wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “It’s having the biggest impact on population growth of any factor.” [snip]

Perhaps it’s the aloe scented detergent the caring otter washers use when cleaning up the little cuties.

[snip]
A small number of white sharks, perhaps juveniles, could be coming into the area to feed on young elephant seals and ending up killing otters, as well, Tinker said. Had the rate of shark attacks remained where it was a decade ago, there would be about 500 more California sea otters now — around 3,250, according to his computer models. That would be enough to reach the 3,090 population target to remove the otter from the federal endangered species list.

In the 1990s, Tinker and other biologists published studies showing that orca whales in southern Alaska were beginning to feed on otters there. Since then, the otter population there has fallen from 80,000 to about 5,000.

Can anything be done? [snip]

Actually, there is. Let the sharks eat all the otters, once that happens, there is no more problem.

If that’s unsatisfactory, get the Michele Obama food police after the finned feeders.