The littlest Sea Otter

Tales from the Backyard…  My friends Jim and Bonny came up to go hiking the Chilkoot, but the evening before they went, I took them out fishing for salmon.  The mountains are so steep that you can almost touch them and still be in 400 feet of water.  The salmon like it close to the rocks so we were trolling slowly along when a family of Sea Otters came swimming by.  They then crawled up on the rocks right next to us.  About 15 feet back was the smallest otter with an 18 inch fish in his mouth, struggling slowly along.  When he reached the spot where the rest of the family were resting, the mother got back in the water and started swimming again.  The poor little otter had to just keep on going.  The mother otter swam another 100 feet or so and again crawled out of the water, the 4 pups right behind.  The last, still struggling with the fish, slowly made it to mom and again, she crawled back into the water and swam another 100 feet or so.  This went on for quite some time, them never more than 20 or so feet from us.  Finally, we turned and headed home.  I’m not sure what message the mother otter was trying to teach the little one, but I don’t think he was getting it as the last we saw of then, he was still struggling with the fish.