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Well, ongoing investigations have revealed that predation a difficult word for candidates: enunciate clearly is the most likely cause of sea otter decline after all.

 

First, the pollution theory is weakened by the fact no one can really find any dead sea otters washing up on Alaskan beaches. That's not what you would expect if infections caused by pollution started killing a lot of otters. On the other hand, the fact that it's so hard to find dead otters is consistent with the predator hypothesis: if an otter is killed by a predator, it's eaten immediately so it can't wash up on shore.

 

Second, although orcas may prefer to hunt whales, whales have essentially disappeared from the area because of human hunters. That means that orcas have had to change their diet to survive, and since only smaller sea mammals are now available, orcas have probably started hunting those. So, it probably is the orcas that are causing the decline of all the smaller sea mammals mentioned in the passage, the seals, the sea lions, and the sea otters.

 

And third, the uneven pattern of otter decline is better explained by the orca predation theory than by the pollution theory. What happens to otters seems to depend on whether the location where they live is accessible to orcas or not. In those locations that orcas can access easily, the number of sea otters has declined greatly. However, because orcas are so large, they can't access shallow or rocky locations. And shallow and rocky locations are precisely the types of locations where sea otter populations have not declined.

 

 

The professor in the listening part thinks the predator theory is more likely to explain the sea otter decline than the pollution theory.

 

First of all, no dead sea otters are found in Alaskan coast. If it is the pollution that causes the otters to die, then there certainly can find some dead sea otters, while the fact is not. On the other hand, no dead otters would leave near the coast if they are eaten immediately by the orca.

 

Secondly, the change of orca's diet would lead to the decline of other sea mammals. It is true that orcas used to eat much larger prey. However, the population of whales and other larger preys the orca once ate have decreased because of human hunting activities. This makes the orca to change their diet to eat small mammals like seals and sea lions in order to survive.

 

Thirdly, the uneven pattern can well be explained by predator theory. The decline of sea otters can only be found at places where the orca can easily reach, while the place where the orca cannot approach because of its large body the number of sea otter is quite normal.

 

So, predator theory is a better explanation for this phenomenon.