All existing sea otter, Enhydra lutris, populations have suffered at least one historic population bottleneck stemming from the fur trade extirpations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But the tide is turning. It is estimated that the world sea otters’ population once numbered between several hundred thousand and more than one million before being almost exterminated by fur traders in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sea otter numbers have declined in southwestern Alaska over the past 20 years. The population south of Pt. The B.C. Although sea otter populations are continuing to increase around British Columbia, they are not out of the woods quite yet. Consequently, the sea otters die from hypothermia. “Sea otters co-existed with and were managed by the Indigenous Peoples of this region for millennia,” said Gregr. After being originally designated Threatened by the Species at Risk Act, it became a species of Special Concern in 2009 since the population was recovering. 's sea otter population ranges along much of the exposed west coast of Vancouver Island and parts of the central mainland B.C. The SEA concluded that, while changes to the nearshore ecosystem will result from the restoration of the sea otter to its ecological role, the strategy itself recommends research, population assessment, protection and communication which will benefit the environment and not entail any significant adverse effects. This will allow kelp forests to grow back restoring habitat for threatened marine species. Crude oil normally penetrates the fur of the otter destroying the air layer that is trapped next to its skin. Without otters to keep them in check, populations of sea urchins have boomed, carpeting the sea floor in spiny spheres that mow down entire forests … California’s southern sea otter has been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act since 1977. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) listed the southern sea otter population as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1977 and adopted a recovery plan for the population 1982, which was updated in 2003. They are protected by the federal government’s Canada Fisheries Act, and the BC Wildlife Act. Along 3 km of the Gaysiigas Gwaay shoreline, 75% of the sea urchins are being removed. Population modeling using data from 1976 to 1998 showed that Sea Otters in Prince William Sound had decreased survival rates in all age-classes in the nine years following the spill and the Prince William Sound Sea Otter population had not yet fully recovered to pre-spill levels (Monson et al. The U.S. Threats . It included an article which prohibited non-natives and anyone hunting for commercial purposes from hunting sea otters. Indigenous collaboration and leadership key to managing sea otter population recovery. By the mid-1800s the commercial enterprise was largely over. To this day, sea otter trading/selling has become more rare. California’s southern sea otter has been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act since 1977. The sea otter population is thought to have once been 150,000 to 300,000, stretching in an arc across the North Pacific from northern Japan to the central Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. Wildlife Act. Secondly, oil spills result in the death of sea otters. Konar began diving in the Aleutians in the 1990s, just as the Aleutian sea otter population began to crash. The Alaskan sea otter has a greater tendency to haul out (come to shore) than the California sea otter. Like most marine mammals, Sea Otters have low reproductive rates. Because they are dependent on their fur for warmth, sea … Fish and Wildlife Service anticipated de-listing by 2000. The recovery plan specifies that the species should be considered for delisting when the average population level over a three-year period exceeds 3,090 … 2000a). Our current understanding of the dynamics of the southern sea otter population is largely based on MMS-funded studies conducted during the 1980s (Siniff and Ralls, 1988), at a time when the population was increasing. The 2013 surveys indicated that the sea otter population at heavily-oiled northern Knight Island, where abundance was depressed for two decades after the Spill, had finally reached pre-Spill levels. Fisheries and Oceans Canada has been formally engaged in scientific studies and monitoring of the sea otter population since 2001 as a result of requirements under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). By 1911, hunting for the animal's luxurious fur had reduced the sea otter population to fewer than 2000 individuals in the most remote and inaccessible parts of its range. The sea otter was once abundant in a wide arc across the North Pacific ocean, from northern Japan to Alaska to Mexico. Today, B.C. Sea Otter Conservation. 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