TOEFL integrated writing: The sea otter

Both the article and lecture are discussing about the decline in population of sea otters but in different prospective. The article claims that pollution is the major cause of decrease in number of sea otters and gives three reasons of its support where as the lecture argues that predation is the major cause and refutes all points made by article.

First of all, the lecture claims that environmental pollution is not the cause of decline in no.of sea otters. According to the lecture, there is no dead bodies of sea otters found in the sea which implies that the sea otters have been consumed by the predators. However,the article states that the water of the Alaska sea has been examined which found pollutants like oil rigs,industrial chemicals and suggest that these are the major cause of death of sea otters.

secondly,the lecture posits that sea mammals like seals, sea lions, sea otters are preyed by orcas, where as the reading states that Orcas mainly consume whales. But the lecture refute this point by stating whales are disappeared due to hunting by humans. Therefore sea otters are predated by Orcas which decrease their population.

Thirdly, the lecture refutes the point made by the article on the uneven population of sea otters ie: in some parts the pollution of sea otter is unaffected . The article attribute the cause to ocean currents and other environmental factors. On the other hand ,the lecture claimed that " orcas predation theory" is the cause. The speaker asserts that orcas are huge mammals , so they can't have access to shallow and rocky location wher the sea otters population is unaffected.