INTRODUCTION 



As early as 1733, Spanish missionaries and explorers bartered 

 for sea otter (Enhydra lutris) pelts with the Indians of Upper 

 and Lower California (Ogden, 1941). Apparently the high value 

 of the skins in the Orient was unknown to them. 



In 1741 Georg Wilhelm Steller was shipwrecked with the Bering 

 expedition on Bering Island of the Commander Islands. Here he 

 observed the sea otter and gave the western world its first scientific 

 description of the animal and its habits. After the remnant of 

 Bering's expedition returned with valuable furs and news of 

 abundant otters and seals on the islands to the east, fur hunters 

 from Siberia, the Promyshlenniki, soon began exploiting Aleutian 

 sea otter populations. 



In 1779, members of Captain James Cook's expedition to the 

 North Pacific sold in Canton otter pelts that they had obtained 

 at Vancouver Island. The high value of the pelts on the Oriental 

 market soon precipitated a flood of fur hunters from America and 

 Europe. Thus began intensive exploitation of otters along the 

 west coast of the United States and Canada. Unregulated hunting 

 throughout the sea otter's range was incessant, and by the end of 

 the 19th century the sea otter was extinct commercially and 

 nearly extinct as a species. Highlights of this period are recounted 

 in context by Miller and Miller (1967). 



Management of the sea otter as a valuable natural resource 

 began in 1911 when the remnant population was given Federal 

 protection. It was feared that after nearly 170 years of unregu- 

 lated exploitation the species might not survive. The initial phase 

 of Government control was one of complete protection. 



In 1935, men of the U.S. Coast Guard saw many sea otters at 

 Amchitka Island, and in 1936, U.S. Bureau of Fisheries agents 

 were stationed there to guard against poaching. 



In 1936 and 1937, expeditions under Olaus J. Murie of the U.S. 

 Bureau of Biological Survey conducted the first comprehensive 

 biological inventory of what had become, in 1913, the Aleutian 

 Islands Wildlife Refuge (now a National Wildlife Refuge). 



These expeditions were the first to reveal that otter populations 

 at a number of islands were growing. During World War II, 

 additional population grov^th was observed. 



1 



