Complying with the Congressional directive, the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service prepared and, on 31 July 1986, issued a 

 Draft Environmental Impact Statement. This document identi- 

 fied translocation of sea otters to San Nicolas Island in the 

 California Channel Islands as the preferred action. On 15 

 August 1986, the Service published proposed experimental 

 population regulations in the Federal Register . 



In the fall of 1986, Congress passed and the President 

 signed Public Law 99-625. This law, which extended the Wetlands 

 Loan Act, included provisions authorizing and encouraging the 

 development and implementation of a plan to establish at 

 least one sea otter colony outside the present sea otter 

 range in California. It required, among other things, that 

 the translocation plan specify a translocation zone that 

 would meet the habitat needs of the translocated animals and 

 provide a buffer against possible adverse activities that may 

 occur outside that zone. It also required that the area 

 surrounding the translocation zone be designated a management 

 zone from which sea otters are to be excluded by non-lethal 

 means. This would protect fishery resources by prohibiting 

 expansion of the sea otter population south of Point Concepcion. 



The Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal to translocate 

 sea otters to San Nicolas Island was designed to fulfill 

 research as well as management objectives and therefore required 

 a scientific research permit as provided for under the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act. It also constituted a major Federal 

 action under the Coastal Zone Management Act and required a 

 determination of consistency with the California Coastal 

 Management Plan. In addition, to satisfy conditions related 

 to the Endangered Species Act, it required the concurrence of 

 the California Fish and Game Commission and consultations 

 within the Fish and Wildlife Service pursuant to section 7 of 

 the Act. 



Steps taken by the Commission and others to make the 

 required determinations and satisfy the conditions of applicable 

 statutes and regulations are described in the Commission's 

 previous Annual Report. A final rule and record of decision 

 regarding the translocation was issued by the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service on 11 August 1987. Efforts to capture and translocate 

 sea otters were initiated on 24 August 1987. 



On 28 August 1987, a group representing several fishing 

 interests filed suit in California State Court seeking a 

 temporary restraining order to stop the translocation from 

 proceeding. The plaintiffs alleged that several State laws 

 had been violated in issuing the State permit to the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service. The California Superior Court denied the 

 request for a temporary restraining order, concluding that 

 the action against the Fish and Wildlife Service should have 



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