Our group is interested in the ecology of coastal marine communities, particularly the influences of vertebrate consumers on benthic community structure. Most of our field research has focused on the sea otter in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. We have ongoing research projects in the Aleutian Islands, central California, the Channel Islands, and New Zealand. The central theme of all these studies is to identify the important high-trophic-level consumers and their influences on the organization of the communities within which they live. We are also interested in marine plant- herbivore interactions, the behavioral ecology of marine vertebrates, and the evolution of marine living in mammals.