583 



DFG Chief of Operations E. C. Fullerton said, however, that his department 

 does not intend to make any recommendations for the management of the otters 

 until a 3-year study started by DFG in 1968 is complete and carefully evaluated. 

 "The more we leam about the otter," he said in November 1970, "the more we 

 realize that we know very little. We want to retrench and see if what we are 

 doing so far is right . . . We've got to go back and learn more." 



Originally FSO itself favored transplanting otters to avoid the threat of an 

 oil slick rendering the animals extinct overnight. Now the group is much more 

 cautious, pointing to the mortality that so far has been unavoidable in trans- 

 plant attempts and to the fear of biologists working in the field that the released 

 otters would not multiply. 



FSO now feels that transplantation should not be attempted without careful 

 scientific study. The group's position is that were it not for the oil threat, the 

 otters should be allowed to extend their range naturally. Even with the oil threat 

 in mind, transplants should be only a last resort. 



The question of whether there is any real danger of overcrowding in the 

 California otter refuge has provoked hot debate. One University of Santa Cruz 

 biologist, during a sea otter-abalone conference at the Mo-ss Landing Marine 

 Laboratory, said that he could see "no evidence of malnutrition or stress or 

 starvation or population pressure" in the refuge. He said data sfhow that the 

 California herd "could be four times the size it presently is — in its present 

 range — before there's the necessity of . . . having to move [otters] because of de- 

 pletion of range." 



Friends of the Sea Otter maintains that the claim of overcrowding and subse- 

 quent movement into commercial abalone beds is based on DLFG's desire to trans- 

 plant and manage. Formerly FSO observers on shore worked in conjunction 

 with DFG census takers in aircraft to count the otters. And Dr. James Mat- 

 tison, a physician, otter student, and FSO executive committee member, per- 

 formed the autopsies on otters found dead (it was he who autopsied otter shot 

 by three men convicted and fined in September 1970 for the killings). 



As the otter-fishermen conflict welled, however. DFG spokesmen made state- 

 ments such as "the presence of large numbers of sea otters is not compatible 

 with abalone fishing" (which latter DFG also regulates). Cooperation with 

 FSO was terminated by the department's agents in the field. All dead otters must 

 now be autopsied by DFG, and the number of otters per square mile is counted 

 by DFG observers acting alone. 



After cooperation was withdrawn, DFG Director Ray Amett, former public 

 relations counsel to the Richfield Oil Co., told a group of wildlife professionals : 

 "I also see potential problems ... if [a state or federal employee] were to 

 testify ... in opposition to the established position of the agency or depart- 

 ment he serves . . . 



"Putting it more bluntly, should a professional employee of the Department 

 of Fish and Game . . . assume the position as public critic of the jjolicies 

 of that organization ? I think not . . . Nor can I subscribe to the theory that be- 

 cause an employee is expected to abide by the policies of his agency in a con- 

 troversial matter, he has been 'muzzled' or 'silenced.' " 



Subsequently Mr. Amett wrote that DFG "no longer consider[s] the sea otter 

 to be an endangered species, nor are they rare." However, the most recent edition 

 of the Red Book of rare and endangered species of the United States, put out by 

 the U.S. Bureau of Sports Fisheries and Wildlife, declares the southern sea otter 

 rare and a distinct subspecies. 



Dr. Robert T. Orr, associate director of the California Academy of Sciences 

 and an FSO ad\'isor, said efforts by the state to manage the otters were aimed 

 only at insuring that "a small group of market hunters, who are commercializing 

 on something tJiat belongs to all of us, can continue their exploitation to produce 

 a gourmet item. These big sea snails are not a basic food. Their price is out of 

 the range of the average citizen. Furtiiermore, the commercial hunters are not 

 replenishing things that belong to you and me. I want my abalones to stay in 

 the sea for otters or any other creature that won't exploit them. 



"If the Department of Fi.sh and Game has so much surplus money as well 

 as extra personnel that it can spend its time finding ways and means of curbing 

 the expansion of [otters] and transporting sea otters so that market hunting 

 of abalones for gourmets can continue, we have readied a sad state. I would 

 suggest that such money and effort be channeled to the study of abalone cul- 

 ture. Then perhaps abalones, like oysters . . . can be farmed and prices brought 

 to within the reach of all. I would suggest that in the best interests of the peo- 

 ple of California [the state should] prohibit the commercial taking of abalones." 



