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Intelligent and playful, sea otters never cease to amuse and captivate. Memorable is the image of a mother otter floating on her back, her pup balanced lovingly on her stomach. With long, streamlined bodies, otters are built for life at sea. Lacking the blubber other marine mammals have to keep warm, they rely on their incredibly dense fur coats. It was this same fur that drew wild-eyed trappers and nearly led to the otters’ extermination.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1977 (southern sea otter); 2005 (southwest Alaska population of northern sea otter)
CRITICAL HABITAT: None
RECOVERY PLAN: Southern sea otter, approved 2003; northern sea otter, none
RANGE: Off the coasts of California, Washington, Canada, Alaska, Russia, and Japan
THREATS: Bycatch from commercial fisheries, predation by killer whales in unbalanced ecosystems, oil spills, and pollution
POPULATION TREND: Sea otters once numbered several hundred thousand. Yet the northern population has shrunk to approximately 6,000 individuals and is still dwindling. Though gradually recovering, the southern population today numbers around 2,300.
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SAVING THE SEA OTTER
With resplendent, oh-so-thick fur, otters were voraciously hunted until not a single one could be seen along the California coast. The southern sea otter was believed to be extinct, and otters in Alaskan waters were similarly imperiled. Surprisingly, a small raft of otters was found to have survived off the coast of California’s Big Sur. This southern population was sluggishly yet steadily expanding, and its future looked promising until otters started getting entangled in gillnets and drowning.
To end bycatch kill, the Center teamed up with the Turtle Island Restoration Network and filed a notice of intent to sue the California Department of Fish and Game for allowing the killing of sea otters. In 2000, the agency shut down a set-gillnet fishery and effectively banned gillnet fishing in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
The campaign to protect the northern sea otter has taken a more persistent effort. Since we filed a citizen petition to list the southwest Alaska distinct population segment as endangered, we’ve kept continuous legal pressure on the government. In 2005, this dwindling population was finally listed as threatened. Our follow-up suit the next year resulted in a court-approved settlement forcing designation of critical habitat. Without these strong protections, this population could be devastated by proposed oil drilling.
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Contact: Miyoko Sakashita
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