it’s another beautiful blueSky day so
we’re going to break the monotony of
sitting in the hide and explore that
headland all out there because through
my binoculars we have interesting sea
otters let’s do this so the first step
is going to be to cross the river below
this epic waterfall this is I am my crew
deck sounding device called Mead and elf
uh-huh usually if you fall over when
you’re crossing a river no problem but
when you’ve got thirty thousand dollars
worth of camera equipment in your
backpack
the stakes are slightly higher
hooks to the car that’s
I think
we’ve reached the the headland and this
is where there’s this massive shelf this
huge expanse
that’s only exposed at low tide at high
tide just a few hours ago
this was completely covered and this
Kelp
this stuff is what makes up the marine
ecosystem underneath the water and it’s
called bull kelp and these are
essentially like trees in a forest
but unlike trees whose trunks
are solid by Katniss open these are
hollow and what the kelp does in order
to support itself it pumps itself full
of gas and that means that it’s actually
floating to hold itself up now the other
good thing about bull kelp is that if I
can do this right it doubles up as a
trumpet
ah it’s also really close and salty oh I
wish I hadn’t done that
this tidal zone is packed full of life
every surface is covered in barnacles
mussels and enemies and on top of all of
that is a layer of slippery seaweed but
I’m actually more interested in the kelp
forest that surrounds this headland
because that’s where the sea otters hang
out the only problem is the authors
brown fur makes them look really similar
to the kelp
so I was just stepping over this
beautiful and enemy and I looked up hmm
what’s that fuzzy thing in the kelp over
there
look and there’s a sea otter I’m going
to sneak a little closer see if it
cooperates and hangs out that’s the
theory anyway
this stuff’s like a nice ring itself
yeah we’re trying to slip over and break
ourselves so manage this meat right up
Male
to the water’s edge with this guy and
looking closely down my lens I’ve
realized he’s a guy
I think that is very keen the females
that knows is usually all ripped up and
stabbing because when they’re mating
with the male’s the males are very
aggressive they’ll bite onto their nose
and then they’ll leave big scarcer
this guy’s nose is very clean so I think
he’s a male and he’s a little performer
he’s keeps rolling himself up in account
and that’s what they do to stop them
floating away now the other thing that
he’s really good at is running roles he
keeps all of his limbs and hands and
toes out of the water
and that’s because the thing that keeps
him warm it’s his fur in one square
centimeter he has more fur than we do on
our entire head they’re the densest verb
any animal in the world unfortunately
though the fact that their fur is so
dense was really led to their their
downfall
they were pretty much hunted to
extinction along this coast it’s only
since being reintroduced a bit further
north of here that they’ve since spread
down since they’ve been reintroduced and
now they’re booming kelp has made an
amazing comeback along this coastline
and that’s because simply these offers
are just smashing all of the things that
eat kelp take the sea otters out then
there’s too many things that are grazing
on the kelp and the kelp forests
disappear and then you’ve got no homes
for small fish no homes for then
invertebrates it just nosedives
they’re crucial to the functionality of
the hold underwater ecosystem here this
guy is just touching the shower
hey everyone what’s up thanks so much
Outro
for watching I hope you enjoyed that
please make sure you check back next
week for another crazy wildlife
encounter to see a playlist to the rest
of the series click just here and don’t
forget to share it with your friends and
family see you next week
