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Southern Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris ssp. nereis) is a Pacific Ocean marine dwelling mammal in the Mustelids (Mustelidae) family that grows 3.5-4.5 ft (up to 1.5 meters) long. It is usually seen floating on its back cracking open seafood with small rocks, eating, sleeping, preening its thick fur, carrying one pup, or teaching her pup to dive and find food. Sea otters eat a variety of shellfish, sea urchins, and especially red fat innkeeper worms. They do not go after fish.
Range of Southern Sea Otters: Most often south of San Francisco and north of the Channel Islands.
Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg (31 and 99 lb), making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals. Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otter's primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter is capable of living exclusively in the ocean.

Conservation Status: Vulnerable and threatened (T) in United States (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). The numbers of sea otters are holding steady, but the gene pool is very small because their numbers were radically reduced during the fur trade for ladies fashion :-(

A current threat to the Southern Sea Otter is an infectious pathogen (Toxoplasma gondii) that spreads from CAT FECES on land to the sea, leading to detrimental impacts on marine wildlife. Rivers and storm drains wash the feline fecal pathogen into the ocean. Wild and domestic cats are the only known hosts of Toxoplasma, in which the parasite forms egglike stages, called oocysts, in their feces. Oocysts accumulate in kelp forests and are taken up by snails, which are eaten by sea otters.

"Genetic Link Found Between Deadly Pathogen and Wild and Feral Cats on Land" https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/whats-killing-sea-otters-scientists-pinpoint-parasite-strain