organized program of field work, captive studies, other related 

 projects, and reporting and publication. The situation also has 

 undermined program productivity and seriously compromised 

 important year-to-year continuity essential for maximizing 

 research and management results. The Commission therefore 

 recommended that the Service promptly develop, in consultation 

 with the Recovery Team and with reference to the Comprehensive 

 Work Plan, a well documented three year budget that provides for 

 support of the Hawaiian monk seal program at a level sufficient 

 to allow an organized and rational approach to all issues. 



The comments and recommendations set forth in the 

 Commission's 11 December 1989 letter were made available to 

 members of the Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Team for their 

 consideration at their meeting on 12-14 December. Results of the 

 Team's deliberations had not been received by the Commission by 

 the end of 1989. Also by the end of 1989, the Commission had not 

 received a response from the Service. To help further strengthen 

 the Hawaiian monk seal recovery program in 1990 and to facilitate 

 broad involvement by interested parties in that process, the 

 Commission arranged to hold its 1990 Annual Meeting in March in 

 Honolulu, Hawaii. At that meeting, the Commission expects to 

 undertake a thorough review of the Service's efforts to implement 

 an effective Hawaiian monk seal recovery program, including its 

 response to the recommendations in the Commission's 11 December 

 1989 letter. 



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 subsequent State 

 of California protective 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 



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