by Katrinka Moore
For the past few summers, numerous surfers in Santa Cruz, Calif., have been victims of a crime at sea: boardjacking. The culprit is a female sea otter, who accosts the wave riders, seizing and even damaging their surfboards in the process… “Due to the increasing public safety risk, a team from C.D.F.W. and the Monterey Bay Aquarium trained in the capture and handling of sea otters has been deployed to attempt to capture and rehome her,” a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement. Local officials call the animal Otter 841. The 5-year-old female is well known, for both her bold behavior and her ability to hang 10. And she has a tragic back story, with officials now forced to take steps that illustrate the ways human desire to get close to wild animals can cost the animals their freedom, or worse, their lives. (Photo by Mark Woodward/Native Santa Cruz) —The New York Times, July 12, 2023
She has a true name, of course, that
we’ll never know. But we can give her
a nom de guerre—maybe Greta (as in
Thunberg) or Harriet (as in Tubman) or
Lolita (Lebrón)—women warriors
fighting for their people as 841 is doing,
trying to beat back the invasive species
endangering her endangered habitat.
California Fish and Wildlife, there’s
a simple solution and it’s not to REHOME
this sea otter who’s living in her home. Ban
the surfers. Contrary to popular belief,
humans don’t really get to go wherever
they please and do whatever they want.
Katrinka Moore's latest book is Diminuendo.