Name: 海獺：胃口大的基石物種 | 海灣之聲 (Sea otters: Keystone species with a big appetite | Word of the Bay)
Uploaded: 2025-08-12T12:17:45.000Z
Duration: 3 min 57 s

Sea otters are adorable, but did you know that sea otters also play an important role in keeping the ocean healthy?

海獺很可愛，但您知道海獺在保持海洋健康方面也發揮著重要作用嗎？

Today's Word of the Bay is all about Monterey Bay's most famous keystone species, the sea otter.

今天的 "海灣之語 "主題是蒙特雷灣最著名的關鍵物種--海獺。

I'm a naturalist here at the Aquarium, and we like to say that our greatest exhibit is actually the Monterey Bay itself.

我是水族館的博物學家，我們喜歡說，我們最棒的展品其實是蒙特雷灣本身。

Here you can see so much amazing wildlife like wild birds, whales, and of course, sea otters.

在這裡，您可以看到許多令人驚歎的野生動物，如野鳥、鯨魚，當然還有海獺。

Sea otters are known as a keystone species in the kelp forest, and that means that their very presence has a major effect on the entire ecosystem.

海獺被稱為海藻森林中的關鍵物種，這意味著它們的存在對整個生態系統都有重大影響。

When sea otters are present, kelp forests thrive.

有海獺在的地方，海藻林就會蓬勃發展。

Well, it's all through their enormous appetite.

這一切都源於他們巨大的食慾。

Sea otters can sometimes eat up to a quarter of their body weight every single day, and that's like you or me eating between 15 to 20 pizzas every day, seven days a week.

海獺每天的食量有時可達體重的四分之一，這就好比你我一週七天，每天要吃 15 到 20 個披薩。

Some of sea otters' favorite food are animals like abalone and sea urchins.

海獺最喜歡的食物是鮑魚和海膽等動物。

These animals eat kelp, and if they become too abundant, they can eat so much of it that kelp forests can disappear entirely.

這些動物以海帶為食，如果它們數量過多，就會吃掉大量海帶，導致海藻森林完全消失。

So this is where sea otters help maintain a balance.

By eating so much, sea otters are helping to maintain healthy kelp forests and other important ecosystems like coastal estuaries.

海獺吃得這麼多，有助於維持健康的海藻森林和其他重要的生態系統，如沿海河口。

Sea otters can also use tools such as a rock or just another shell, almost like how we would use a hammer.

海獺還能使用石頭或其他貝殼等工具，就像我們使用錘子一樣。

While not all otters use tools, our research has shown that otters that do are able to eat a larger variety of prey.

雖然並非所有水獺都使用工具，但我們的研究表明，使用工具的水獺能夠吃到更多種類的獵物。

They're able to open larger prey, and they can eat all of that prey faster.

它們能打開更大的獵物，也能更快地吃掉所有獵物。

For an animal that has to eat so much in one day, using tools can make a big difference.

對於一天要吃掉這麼多食物的動物來說，使用工具能讓它們大為改觀。

Sea otters also have little pockets or folds of skin underneath their front legs, which they can use to stash some of their prey during a dive.

海獺的前腿下面還有一些小口袋或皮膚褶皺，它們可以在潛水時利用這些小口袋或皮膚褶皺藏起一些獵物。

They can then free up their paws to gather even more bits of food and then bring all of that foraged food back up to the surface to eat.

這樣，它們就可以騰出爪子收集更多的食物，然後把所有覓食的食物都帶回到水面上來吃。

Now our aquarium has been studying sea otters for about 40 years to better understand how to protect them and increase their wild population.

現在，我們的水族館已經對海獺進行了大約 40 年的研究，以便更好地瞭解如何保護海獺和增加其野生數量。

Our aquarium's work to rescue, rehabilitate, and release stranded sea otters has been helping to rebuild their threatened wild populations and to maintain and restore coastal habitats like kelp forests and coastal estuaries.

我們水族館救助、康復和釋放擱淺海獺的工作一直在幫助它們重建瀕臨滅絕的野生種群，維護和恢復海藻林和沿海河口等沿海棲息地。

Healthy coastal ecosystems can provide food and shelter for many other species, and as a result, can support local fisheries.

健康的沿海生態系統可以為許多其他物種提供食物和棲息地，從而支持當地的漁業。

Scientists have found that kelp forests with sea otters actually can be more resilient to climate events like marine heat waves.

科學家們發現，有海獺的海藻林實際上更能抵禦海洋熱浪等氣候事件。

For all these reasons, sea otters are an important keystone species.

基於上述原因，海獺是一個重要的基石物種。

You can help sea otters by maintaining a safe distance away from them in the wild, and by supporting organizations like the Monterey Bay Aquarium and others that are working to protect this important and iconic species.

您可以在野外與海獺保持安全距離，並支持蒙特雷灣水族館等致力於保護這一重要標誌性物種的組織，從而幫助海獺。

Thank you so much for allowing me to share the story of the sea otter with you today.

非常感謝你們允許我今天與你們分享海獺的故事。

If you'd like to learn more, just go down to the link in our description box, or of course to our website, and we will see you for the next Word of the Bay.

如果您想了解更多資訊，請點擊說明框中的鏈接，當然也可以訪問我們的網站，我們將在下一期的 "海灣之語 "中與您見面。