Sea otters face entanglement in fishing gear, particularly crab pots and gill nets, causing drowning and injury. Conservation and gear modification efforts provide direct welfare benefits to individual otters.
Sea otters trapped in submerged gear drown - a distressing death for air-breathing marine mammals. The small size of the California sea otter population makes each drowning loss significant both for welfare and conservation. Gear modification including otter-excluder devices and tethered crab pot buoys reduce entanglement risk. Stranded otters with fishing gear injuries require specialized rehabilitation. The welfare case for protecting sea otters is reinforced by their ecological value: healthy otter populations restore kelp forests that provide habitat for thousands of other marine species.