123,000 Crabs a Year?! Sea Otters to the Rescue

How do sea otters help fight invasive species? In the early 2000s, sea otter populations in California’s Monterey Bay declined due to habitat loss. In the meantime, invasive green crabs arrived and wreaked havoc on local ecosystems by taking resources that other animals needed to survive. When sea otters were reintroduced to the area by conservation efforts, they began to eat the green crabs in large quantities. One sea otter can eat 123,000 green crabs in a year, or almost 328 green crabs a day!