After being hunted to local extinction by a murderous fur trade, sea otters are back home in the Pacific Northwest. They’re now a living biology experiment, re-introduced a generation ago by well-meaning scientists. The sea otters’ enormous appetite for shellfish puts them in direct competition with humans, placing them in the middle of a tug-of-war between those who are resolved to protect them and those who see them as unwelcome invaders. An ancient balance used to exist between the two “keystone species” of the shoreline, sea otters and humans, but can it be restored? Do sea otters belong in the modern world? It all depends on what kind of Nature we want.

Filmed in High Definition TV in spectacular scenery in British Columbia, Alaska and California, this program provokes the audience to examine the boundary between “them” and “us”.

Length : 1 hour

Producer
CBC-TV

Director/Writer
Christopher Sumpton

Narrator
David Suzuki

Format : HD

First Airing
September 14, 2005 – CBC Nature of Things