The California Sea Otter Population 
Since the small, remnant population of sea otters in 
California could be reduced substantially by oil spills or 
other catastrophic events, the California sea otter was 
designated as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act 
in January 1977. Available information also indicates that 
sea otters may play an important role in determining the 
structure of marine communities of which they are a part. 
They eat abalone and other shellfish of commercial or recreational 
importance, and make it difficult to maintain viable fisheries 
for these species in areas inhabited by sea otters. On the 
other hand, their presence serves to beneficially affect the 
growth of kelp, a product of commercial significance, which 
also provides habitat for certain species of finfish of 
recreational and commercial importance. Management of the 
California sea otter population must take these interactions 
into account as well as the "threatened" status of the 
population. 
The Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for the 
Management of sea otters and other species under the authority 
of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection 
Act, viewed the sea otter problem as one of relatively low 
priority until 1979. However, at the May 1979 meeting of 
the Commission and its Committee of Scientific Advisors on 
Marine Mammals, Service representatives advised the Commission 
that California sea otters were to be afforded higher priority 
and that efforts were to be undertaken to develop a recovery 
plan. Nonetheless, decisions concerning the timing, content, 
and responsibility for development of the recovery plan had 
not yet been made by late summer, and, on 23 August 1979, 
the Commission wrote the Service to determine whether any 
decisions had been made as well as to elaborate its views on 
a number of issues discussed during the May meeting. Ina 
further effort to catalyze action, the Commission convened a 
meeting in California on 13 December 1979 to discuss a 
variety of related issues with representatives of the Service, 
the California Department of Fish and Game, and the State of 
California's Scientific Advisory Committee on Sea Otters 
(for a detailed discussion, see the 1979 Annual Report). 
By early May 1980, the Commission had not received a 
reply to its 23 August 1979 letter. Although some of the 
points raised in that letter had been discussed at the 13 
December meeting, the precise actions which were being taken 
by the Service to prepare a recovery plan and to resolve 
related issues remained unclear. Therefore, on 1 May, 
