Sea Otters in Danger of Foreclosure

by Stephanie Feldstein · 2010-02-05 18:15:00 UTC
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It's not an easy time to be a marine mammal off the coast of California. First, a sea lion was robbed at gunpoint; shot in the face for allegedly stealing fish from a fisherman (the man was charged with felony animal cruelty, and the sea lion is currently recovering at the Mammal Marine Center.) Now, shellfish and urchin industries want to take away the home — and food — of endangered sea otters.

The complaint is that sea otters are eating into the supply for these multi-million dollar industries. One of the reasons these industries exist is because sea otters were nearly driven to extinction by the fur trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now that the marine mammal population has rebounded a little bit (to around 2,800 off the California coast, which is far more stable than the estimated 20 less than a century ago, but not even close to the original 18,000), the fisherman want their heyday back.

They are trying to convince people that sea otters are the "locusts of the sea," stealing their food, as if the fishing industry hasn't had any impact on the urchin and shellfish populations, and as if this diet is as much a delicacy for sea otters as it is for humans, as opposed to what they eat to survive.

There are have been a number of attempts at a truce. They tried to create a sea otter colony on a distant island, but who wants to be taken from their home and dumped in some other random neighborhood? This, and other relocation attempts, failed. As did the line in the ocean drawn by bureaucrats. Apparently the map they supplied to the otters wasn't clear.

Conservationists filed a lawsuit in federal court several years ago to protect sea otters who disregard the artificial boundaries and wander into the "no otter zone," which incidentally includes many of the kelp forests where the shellfish live. The zones still exist, as does the Industry vs. Otter battle for the coast.

From a public relations standpoint, there's no contest between the cute factor of the otters and the sea urchins "which  have about as much personality as a rock with spines." From the animal welfare standpoint, there's no contest between endangered species eating their natural diet in their natural habitat and an industry that wants to strip the ocean of a species (or two, depending on who gets in the way) to serve it as a delicacy and make a few bucks.

Despite the strong case for otters, this battle is far from over. While there are a number of conservationists looking out for the critters, sea otters aren't any better at lobbying than they are at observing property lines.

Photo credit: mikebaird

Stephanie Feldstein is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.
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