To help foster cooperative international efforts to protect 

 this threatened species, the Commission anticipates providing 

 partial support for certain field activities in 1989. 



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 from central Baja 

 California, north along the coasts of California, Oregon, 

 Washington, British Columbia, and southern Alaska, west around 

 the Aleutian, Pribilof, Commander, and Kuril Islands, and 

 south along the Kamchatka Peninsula and 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 

 the Soviet Union, 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 

 subseguent State of California protection measures, the 

 population grew slowly and, by the mid-1970s, occupied nearshore 

 areas along about 160 miles of the central California coast. 

 The population at that time was estimated to number 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. 



Because of its small size and limited distribution, and 

 the increasing risk of oil spills and other catastrophic 

 events, the California sea otter population was designated as 

 threatened under the Endangered Species Act in January 1977. 

 The most effective way to insure that the population would 

 not be threatened by oil spills would be to establish one or 

 more sea otter colonies outside the existing sea otter range 

 in California. However, such an action could adversely affect 

 commercial and recreational fisheries for abalone, clams, and 

 other invertebrates eaten by sea otters. It also could reduce 

 populations of sea urchins and other species that consume 

 kelp, and thus benefit the kelp industry and both recreational 

 and commercial fisheries for finfish that inhabit kelp beds. 



The Marine Mammal Commission recognized the need to 

 consider and to minimize possible adverse effects on commercial 

 and recreational fisheries, as well as to protect the California 

 sea otter population. Accordingly, in December 1980, it 



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