One small correction. The sea otter at McAllister Creek had gotten all of the way up to the Olympia water supply pond and pump
station. Don't ask me what it was thinking. It was, indeed, captured but it was released back into Puget Sound, near the mouth
of McAllister Creek, rather than on the Pacific Ocean coast. The Redondo otter did get a longer ride, largely because it
was exhibiting behavior toward people and pets that suggested a mishap, perhaps small tragedy, could occur if it wasn't
separated from its adoring fans.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia, Washington
Reply to: mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov

On Mon, 22 Aug 2005, Dawn Bailey wrote:

> Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:18:41 -0700
> From: Dawn Bailey <dawnsdog at rainierconnect.com>
> To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Subject: [Tweeters] correction to sea otters/river otters
>
> I want to thank everyone who emailed me with gentle suggestions that the otters we saw were river otters. (the other otter).
>
> And a big thankyou to Kevin Li, for all his digging and forwarding of pictures to various otter experts.
>
> Ok so this it the scoop on Sea Otters: there has been two records of Sea Otters in the Puget sound area. One at McAllister Creek and the other at Redondo, both were trapped and released back on the coast.
>
> Sea otters will eat everything river otters will eat and more. Sea Otters go on to the beach only rarely, and when they do they are very cumbersome and slow. Sea Otters will have shorter tails, float on their backs while eating, River otters will feed mostly from the back up position.
>
> I have decided that the lighting and action of these otters is what made us think they were a lighter head color then they actually were.
>
> some websites:
>
>
> http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Wetlands/RiverOtter/RiverVSSeaOtter.html
>
> http://www.vanaqua.org/education/aquafacts/seaotters.html
>
> thanks again to everyone that emailed me, we had a great time watching these two eat that amount of fish in such a short time.
>
> Dawn Bailey
> Eatonville, WA
> mailto:dawnsdog at rainierconnect.com
>
> If you were arrested for being kind, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
>