and causes of on-land mortality; assess possible methods for 

 better determining and monitoring survival and pregnancy rates; 

 and continue periodic surveys of selected rookeries to monitor 

 distribution, abundance, and vital population parameters. 



Given the workshop findings, the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service announced in the Federal Register on 24 April 1987 

 that it was undertaking a status review to determine whether 

 the northern sea lion should be designated as depleted under 

 the Marine Mammal Protection Act and/or endangered or threatened 

 under the Endangered Species Act. The results of the review, 

 expected to be completed by 30 October 1987, were not available 

 at the end of 1987. 



Based on the information above, it seems likely that the 

 status review will indicate that one or more local or regional 

 populations of northern sea lions should be designated as 

 depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and possibly 

 as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. 

 The Commission, in consultation with its Committee of Scientific 

 Advisors, will consider the status review when it is available 

 and will provide comments and recommendations to the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service as appropriate. 



The California Sea Otter Population (Enhydra lutris) 



Commercial hunting of sea otters for fur began in the 

 mid-1700s and continued intermittently until 1911 when the 

 species was protected by the North Pacific Fur Seal Treaty, 

 signed by the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan. 

 Prior to commercial exploitation, sea otters inhabited the 

 coastal waters of the North Pacific Ocean, south along the 

 west coast of North America to central Baja California and, in 

 the eastern Pacific, as far south as the islands of northern 

 Japan. By 1911, sea otters were extinct throughout most of 

 their historic range. 



Small groups of sea otters survived in remote areas in 

 Russia, Alaska, and central California. The remnant population 

 in California occupied a few miles of the rocky Point Sur 

 coast and may have numbered fewer than 50 animals in 1911. 

 Under the protection of the Fur Seal Treaty and subsequent 

 State of California protection measures, the population grew 

 slowly and, by the mid-1970s, occupied about 160 miles of 

 habitat along the central California coast. The population 

 was estimated at fewer than 1,800 animals. At the same time, 

 the risk of oil spills in and near the California sea otter 

 range was increasing as a result of increased tanker traffic, 

 due primarily to transport of oil from the recently completed 

 Alaska pipeline. 



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