Awesome shot by Steven J. Kazlowski, who somehow survived the cute overdose and has the photos to prove it. Did I say home run? This is an out-of the-park, extra-innings, World Series grand slam of cuteness. From the Mail Online:
Photographer Steven Kazlowski, 40, snapped the otters drifting across Saw Mill Bay, in Prince William Sound, off the south coast of Alaska. The sound has more than 3,000 miles of shoreline and is home to around 70,000 sea otters.[Whoa, dudes. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service [pdf link], "Three population stocks of sea otters exist in Alaska today. The statewide population is believed to number around 70,000 animals." Thousands of sea otters died in Prince William Sound as a result of the Exxon Valdez disaster, and research indicates that the population has not recovered fully. The current sea otter population of PWS, according to a 2003 aerial survey quoted here [pdf], is estimated to be nearly 12,000.]
Visit the Mail Online to see the cuteness in all its embiggened glory. [H/T: Petville.]
Steven, from Seattle, United States, said he had to wait for almost eight hours before he got the snaps of the otters.
He said: 'I had watched this area for several days and I found a rock which I thought would make a great place to watch the otters from.
'I had been hiding there for about eight hours one day when I saw the otter with its baby drift by.
'It was fantastic that after all that time I was rewarded with these images.
'The baby was just sleeping in the sun as its mother she floated in the sound on her back. It was something I will never forget.'
