THE SEA OTTER IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC OCEAN 181 



large human population of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William 

 Sound area may in some way inhibit sea otter population growth. 



The Prince William Sound area was greatly affected by the 

 earthquake of 27 March 1964. An expedition to discover the effects 

 of the earthquake was undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey 

 in May and June 1964. An indication of the damage to some of 

 the sea otter habitat is told in letters of 4 June and 20 July 1964 

 from Dr. G. Dallas Hanna who was a member of the expedition. 



The destruction of animal and plant life in the former intertidal zone 

 where we have been is catastrophic. Not a living thing is left on the upraised 

 section. I think it will be many years before a new zone is formed. 



Sea otters have been the most common of the marine mammals thus far. 

 Usually we are in small boats close in shore or on land in daylight hours and 

 opportunity for observation has not been the best. . . . Where the rise was 

 greatest (7 to 33 feet) the kelp beds were destroyed so the animals seem to 

 range out in the channels. 



Dr. Hanna recorded 70 otters observed by himself and other 

 members of the expedition in the vicinity of Hinchinbrook, La- 

 touche and Montague Islands. 



Further studies will be required to determine if the reduced 

 number of sea otters observed in 1964 (table 35) was related to 

 the March 1964 earthquake. 



Earthquake caused disturbances have drastically affected sea 

 otter populations. Voronov (1967) observed starvation and changes 

 in distribution of sea otters in 1963 and 1964 following massive 

 destruction of bottom fauna by tsunami in the Kuril Islands. 



Pribilof Islands 



The sea otter was numerous at the Pribilof s at the time of their 

 discovery in 1786. Elliott (1875) says— 



when the Prybilov Islands were first discovered, two sailors, Lukannon and 

 Kaiekov, killed at Saint Paul's Island, in the first year of occupation, iive 

 thousand; the next year they got less than a thousand, and in six years after 

 not a single sea otter appeared, and none have appeared since. 



Lutke (1835), however, indicates that in the first 2 years 

 [ca. 1786-88] the take was "plus de 200 loutres" and by 1828 

 "il n'y eut bientot plus une seule loutre." The number taken during 

 Pribilov's short visit to the Pribilof Islands is given by Nozikov 

 (194?) as 2,325. 



I. Veniaminov (in Elliott, 1875) indicates that the species was 

 not exterminated at the Pribilof s until about 1840. Records of the 

 sighting of two sea otters and of "one which had been crushed 

 by the ice" in 1889 and 1896 are recorded by Preble and McAfee 



