While their numbers have increased, California sea otters are still endangered. And, for some reason, they're attractive to sharks.
Once on the verge of extinction, otters are sticking around and at a steady level, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. There are between 2,700 and 2,900 sea otters around the California coast, a number that's held steady since 2005, which is not necessarily good news.
"The recovery of the California sea otter has stalled," said Steve Shimek, chief executive officer of The Otter Project, which noted that the count for 2014 was down slightly, the newspaper reported.
There were at one time as many as 16,000 otters off the coast of California.
And there is one thing's killing more otters than anything else: shark bites.
Sharks are not considered a natural predator for otters. But for some reason, in some areas shark bites are found on 60 percent of dead otters, the newspaper reported.
