[CINC] The Sea Otter's Return to Southern California

[TARA BROWN]

Hi naturalists,
 
I went to the SB Maritime Museum talk on "The Sea Otter's Return to Southern California" Tuesday, September 20th.  The presentation was given by Greg Sanders, who wrote the 2005 recommendation to stop the "translocation plan" while he worked for the Fish and Games Department. 
 
He discussed the near extinction of sea otters by the Russian American Fur Company in the 1800s.  (There is an excellent coverage of this in the book "San Miguel Island" by Lois Roberts.)  William Dana hunted out of Santa Barbara, and also the mountain man George Nidever.  He recommended reading "The Life and Adventures of George Nidever."
 
In 1911, sea otter hunting was banned.  Sea otters were thought to have been hunted to extinction on the California coast.  The "Monterey clan" wasn't discovered until 1940.  Public Law 99-625 has listed the sea otter as "endangered."
 
The 1987 "translocation"=elimination of sea otters from Southern California also relocated 140 over three years to San Nicholas Island.  There are 40 sea otters around San Nicholas today.
 
The translocation was stopped in 1993, but the law was not changed. Mr. Sanders, who wrote the recommendation to stop the translocation in 2005 for Fish and Games, said that the recommendation to stop the translocation was never finalized, and that it is out to public comment again!
 
There are now 75 sea otters south east of Pt. Conception.  
 
There are around 2,700 sea otters in total today.
 
- Tara Brown
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