The story
The waters off La Push host abundant marine mammals, including harbor seals, Steller and California sea lions, and sea otters. Sea otters, once hunted to local extinction for the fur trade, have been reintroduced and are slowly recovering along the Olympic coast, where they forage in kelp beds, often floating on their backs to crack open shellfish.
Leaving the coast behind, picture the life still working that water you just left, seals in the surf, sea lions on the rocks, an otter rolling in the kelp. The otters especially are a comeback story, brought back from near nothing on this very shore. The ocean out there is crowded with creatures, most of them you never saw. Roll on inland.
Photo: Mike Baird from Morro Bay, USA · CC BY 2.0
.jpg){kind=link}