Cute, furry and key to the ecosystem: can sea otters save the US west coast?

Campaign seeks to restore seas otters to northern California and Oregon: They are really important to coastal ecosystems'

Before the fur trade drove them to near extinction, sea otters once roamed the waters of North America from Alaska to Baja California. Now a non-profit conservation group wants to see them brought back, and say the otters could help restore the region's crucial but decimated kelp forests.

The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to reintroduce the furry mammals to a large swath of the west coast stretching from northern California to Oregon, pointing to the vital role otters play in the coastal ecosystem. A small population of southern sea otters lives on California's central coast, where the Monterey Bay Aquarium regularly documents their adventures, but the threatened animal occupies just 13% of its historic range.