Return of the Sea Otter: The Story of the Animal That Evaded Extinction on the Pacific Coast

McLeish has my amazed admiration for his assiduous tracking down of dozens of marine biologists up and down the Pacific coast from Alaska to central California, who take him on their boats and into their research facilities to study, protect, and rehabilitate this delightful and rugged animal. His book has a strong "you are there" orientation therefore, and I learned so much about the efforts of marine researchers in protecting sea otters. McLeish is also careful to be sensitive to the people involved in fishing for the very creatures such as clams and abalone that sea otters eat voraciously, for their livelihoods, especially in Alaska, can conflict with the priorities of conservationists.

Let me first start off by saying that I truly enjoyed this book from front to back. In the thirteen chapters each depicting a different pacific coastal area that was affected by sea otters and that housed a great rise and decline of these adorable marine animals McLeish tells of the species and his experiences with them in great detail. The author does a great job of describing the importance of sea otters to the marine ecosystems and how humans intertwine with that relationship. While I would recommend this book to anyone, those who are specifically interested in ecology, marine ecosystems, or wildlife studies would especially enjoy it as it gives example after example of how we need to be treating our earth and our wildlife and what can happen if we turn a blind eye and don’t do our proper research. While some parts were a bit slow for the average reader, McLeish tells great stories from his own experiences and those of who he is acquainted (other scientists) that help you understand at a much greater depth the story of the species and the controversial past and present they hold.

Truly informative, comprehensive account of West Coast sea otters, their lives, habits, ranges, CUTE-ness, not-so-cuteness, their use of tools, role in littoral kelpish (mostly) ecosystems, boost to eco-tourism, threat to various fisheries, mating maneuvers, their accidental predators, their prey, and problematic status as endangered marine mammalian species, even their parasites and diseases. Nicely written, but by the end I felt like I was striking the same shell with the same rock four-too-many times. I also wanted very much to see some in person.

This book came in perfect condition and delivery was fast. Thank you.

Fascinating!

This was an easy but compelling read. Great balance between scientific and cultural/emotional background.

Very informative

It was definitely not a boring book at all. The author was able to connect with me and keep me pretty interested, he didn’t just make it a boring informational book. He was able to bring emotion into that information which was what kept me connected. He was able to put in some cool information about how they were capturing the Sea Otters, it made me able to visualize it. Even though it kept me pretty interested, there were sometimes where I go a little lost with some of the information. There were some words that had to do with the animals that they talked about with the Sea Otters that I wish they would describe what they looked like so I can get a better picture while reading. The author did do that with one animal though saying that it was like a jelly fish thing, I think, so just maybe dumbing it down a little bit more. I definitely would recommend this book to someone. I thought it was an overall good book, it gives good background on the Sea Otter history which I was very interested in on learn and how people where actually upset about Sea Otters expanding. That was a good thing. I think anyone interested in learning about Sea Otters should read this. It covers a whole bunch of information about their past, what is happening with them right now, how they are keeping track of them, getting information on them as a species, how important they are to the environment that they live in, the laws that affected them. I think it is just a well-rounded book on Sea Otters and you can learn a lot of cool and interesting information on them. So, honestly anyone interested in marine biology, Sea Otters, and I think it would be good for even the general public to read it to understand what happens when we over harvest things, like the Sea Otters, would benefit from reading it and enjoy it.

As well as charting the recovery of otter numbers, explores the effects of the increase in otter numbers on environment and communities.