The lecture holds the opinion that it is predation rather than pollution that cause the number of sea otter to decrease, which challenges the idea of the passage.
To begin with, the speaker asserts that the evidence that the dead body cannot be found on the beach firmly proves the predation as the main cause of the decrease. Since predators eat the otter up, the body of course cannot be observed on the shore. This contradicts the idea of pollution in the passage, which frequently bring about the appearance of the dead body on the beach.
In addition, it is believed in the lecture that the orca, whose preference is whale, may change the diet because of the disappearance of whales. Then the otter and other sea mammals will be the orca's target. It makes sense that the population of otter and others become smaller. In contrast, the passage owe (owes) the decline to the pollution rashly.
Furthermore, the location, whether is suitable for the predator or not, is the key to explain the uneven pattern of otter .In the rocky and shallow place, which will limit the movement of orca, the number of otters may not decreases sharply as the same to where fits the growth of orca. This totally differ (differs) the idea in the passage that ocean current or the environmental factors lead to the unbalanced phenomenon.