A rogue Santa Cruz otter is terrorizing surfers: the redux

It’s been 2 years since a Santa Cruz oversea otter, known arsenic 841, garnered planetary attraction and personage by attacking surfers and their surfboards arsenic the quality wave-riders alley-ooped implicit the waves of the legendary Steamer Lane.

It’s happening again.

This time, the individuality of the otter is unclear. That’s due to the fact that portion 841 (who was calved successful captivity) carried a airy bluish tag connected her close flipper, this otter is naked.

Experts accidental 841 could person chewed disconnected her tag, oregon it could person breached disconnected connected its own. Otter flipper tags are designed to past an animal’s lifespan, but probe shows they don’t ever past truthful long.

It’s besides imaginable this is an wholly antithetic otter who whitethorn person watched 841 successful the past, and is adopting her funny and bold behavior. It could beryllium a relative. Or it could beryllium this otter conscionable has a akin surfboard appetite and hostage-taking drive.

On Thursday afternoon, astir 3 twelve surfers were lined up to drawback waves astatine Steamer Lane — conscionable beneath the Santa Cruz coastline’s cliffs adjacent the city’s iconic lighthouse and surfer statue.

Mark Woodward, a Santa Cruz-based societal media influencer and dedicated 841 perceiver and chronicler, said helium wasn’t definite whether this was 841, oregon idiosyncratic different.

Otter 841 chewing connected a surfboard aft chasing a surfer disconnected successful Santa Cruz successful July 2023.

(Mark Woodward)

He said the animal’s behaviors and M.O. were astir identical. However, portion 841 tended to bent adjacent to the cliffs successful 2023, this otter appeared to walk much clip a spot farther retired — person to the offshore kelp beds.

He saw 841 past twelvemonth — tag connected — visiting the aforesaid waters but keeping her region from people.

The lone otter seen connected Thursday was mode disconnected shore, floating connected its backmost atop a kelp furniture — presumably eating immoderate tasty morsel, specified arsenic a crab oregon abalone, retrieved from the oversea floor.

Pelicans glided implicit the cresting waves, portion a harbor seal watched the surfers for a spot earlier diving nether the aboveground and disappearing from sight.

During the summertime of 2023, national wildlife officials tried to seizure 841. They sent retired boats, rafts and swimmers. She evaded each effort and yet gave commencement to a pup, whom she cradled connected her thorax arsenic she floated atop the h2o — oregon placed connected apical of the kelp arsenic she dived to the bottommost to retrieve food. And she stopped chasing surfboards.

Eric Laughlin, spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the pb otter-response bureau successful this case. However, perchance owed to the national authorities shutdown, the bureau did not respond to questions astir the surfing-curious otter successful Santa Cruz.

Laughlin said the authorities bureau had nary plans “to intervene with the oversea otter presently interacting with humans successful Santa Cruz.”

Research connected California oversea otters shows that on the cardinal coast, determination is “extreme individuality successful fare and behavior.” Some of the saltation is the effect of comparatively debased nutrient availability, requiring the clever creatures to fig retired unsocial ways of uncovering and retrieving food.

However, the researchers besides noted immoderate behavioral traits seemed to travel household lines, particularly those “maintained on matrilines.”

Surfers astatine Steamer Lane successful Santa Cruz connected July 13, 2023.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Otter 841 was calved successful captivity to a parent who had been captured aft spending excessively overmuch clip interacting with radical and their watercraft. Since being released into the wild, she has fixed commencement to astatine slightest 2 pups.

According to Woodward, the otter present frequenting Steamer Lane has been actively pursuing surfers astir each time since Oct. 16, erstwhile it spot a surfer named Bella Orduna and stole her board.

Dripping bedewed and donned successful a bedewed suit, Richard Walston, 55, said helium hadn’t had immoderate interactions with the surfer-curious carnal — and he’s a predominant surfer successful the area.

“Sure, I spot otters,” helium said. “But they’re truthful focused connected their food, I’m not definite they adjacent announcement we’re around.”

Wildlife officials are urging surfers and boaters to support their region from this otter, and others — not lone volition this trim the chances of an interaction, which could beryllium unsafe for some radical and otters, it is the law.