California Sea Otters Key To Coastline Ecosystem: Scientists

California's delicate marine environment could be threatened by the declining numbers of sea otters decimated by pollution, commercial fishing, and mysterious brain infections, scientists say. "When the otters are gone the kelp forests change to a barren land," Jim Estes, an otter expert and marine biologist with the US Geological Survey, told AFP. Sea otters are known as a keystone predator. They eat sea urchins, which feed on kelp, thus maintaining the environmental balance for other species. "The kelp in places that no longer encompass the range of the sea otter is massively degraded," said Estes. New legislation would beef up the budget to protect the otters on a federal level and fund scientists like Estes hoping to unravel the mystery of the flatlining otter population...