The river otters are making a come back in the Chesapeake Bay watershed after years of decline with the improvement in water quality. In our weekly series with the Bay Journal Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush talks with editor-at-large Carl Blankenship about the significance of the improvement.
RUSH: The river otters are making a comeback. This is Don Rush. After decades of decline, the population is bouncing back from Baltimore to Norfolk. Much of it has to do with the improving water quality. In our partnership with the Bay Journal, we spoke with Editor-at-Large, Carl Blankenship about their initial decline.
BLANKENSHIP: River Otters really disappeared in the last couple of centuries because when they were strung out along these rivers, they were more vulnerable to water pollution. A lot of those areas suffered deforestation, which changed the riparian habitats, and they were vulnerable to trapping, and they were really gone in those western upstream areas in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. They only hung on up in the Poconos and they were gone in the rest of the state.
RUSH: But now of course, they've made a comeback. What's that all about?
BLANKENSHIP: In the eighties and nineties, they were actually targeted for reintroduction efforts into some of the areas where they'd been removed, and it's been a pretty amazing recovery for them. They have really made solid comebacks in those areas and around the watershed and their population seemed to be expanding both from the coastal marshes and these reintroduction points and covering a lot of rivers, and they have been turning up in places where people really never thought you would see them. Like the Elizabeth River down in the Hampton Roads area, and Virginia, Baltimore Harbor, in the DC area, and the Anacostia River. Some of these, if you go back 20 or 30 years ago, were considered to be some of the most polluted areas in the region. In fact, the Anacostia, Elizabeth, and Baltimore Harbor were all identified as toxic hotspots and things, and otters do kind of like clean water and it is really remarkable to see how these areas have recovered enough that you're seeing otters come back and recolonize them.
RUSH: What kind of animals are these? I mean, how would you describe them?
BLANKENSHIP: Well, they're members of the weasel family, so they look kind of like weasels. They're kind of short. They have big whiskers, they have big eyes, so they're kind of fun to look at, and they're pretty social. They hang out together and they can be a little bit hard to see, although you can spot them swimming in the water and they're nocturnal. But I've seen lots of videos of them and they're just really playful. It is neat to watch them sliding down riverbanks into the river or down snowbanks into the river and getting out and just doing it again. They just have this real playful reputation.
RUSH: Do we expect then that the area that they are able to expand in, is that going to increase, do you think, as maybe some of these areas are cleaned up, or is it all going to just depend upon how much effort we put into trying to clean up some of the rivers in the bay?
BLANKENSHIP: I think it's both. It seems to be at least a bit of the case that if we clean up some of these rivers a bit, they will come. The populations are expanding, and so it certainly looks like they're going to continue moving into new areas. They'll probably gain, I would think, quite a fan base as they do so.
RUSH: Bay Journal Editor-at-Large, Carl Blankenship on the rebound of the River Otter in the Chesapeake Bay region. The full interview can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM, this is Don Rush for Delmarva Public Media.
