Saving the Sea Otter Feds find reintroduction into Northern California possible but more research needed

By Kimberly Wear kim@northcoastjournal.com

On rare occasions, a sea otter makes an appearance on the North Coast.

Locally extinct since around the turn of the 20th century, the last confirmed sighting was in 2015, when one was filmed frolicking in Humboldt Bay. In less fortunate cases, remains of two sea otters were separately discovered washed up on area beaches over the last decade. Genetic testing showed one was part of the northern population that extends from Washington state to Alaska, while the other was the southern subspecies that lives along the Central California coast, between Santa Barbara and San Mateo counties.

How and why the furry sea creatures with animated faces that have launched a thousand memes found their way to Humboldt — as well as the origin and outcome of the sea otter seen alive and swimming near the North Jetty — is unknown because none had tracking devices.

Although male sea otters are sometimes prone to wander long distances, getting here would have meant traveling several hundred miles, while evading their ocean nemeses — the great white shark and orca —and finding enough places to forage along the way.

There is, however, a glimmer of possibility that North America’s smallest marine mammal could return to the region — not just as wayward visitors but permanent residents, opening a new chapter for the threatened species. Otters’ reintroduction would also bring the potential added benefit of helping restore the North Coast’s beleaguered bull kelp ecosystem by bringing back a keystone predator missing for generations.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently weighing whether to transplant sea otters to select sites in portions of their former territory — from the Bay Area to Oregon — in an attempt to aid their recovery and eventually bridge the more than century-long separation between southern sea otters and their northern counterparts.

“Reintroducing sea otters to Northern California and Oregon would help increase genetic diversity and long-term sustainability of sea otters in the wild by beginning to reconnect the northern sea otter and southern sea otter subspecies,” Lilian Carswell, USFW’s southern sea otter recovery and marine conservation coordinator, said in an email to the Journal “Scientists have identified that Northern California and Oregon have suitable habitat to support sea otters, and this area constitutes the largest remaining gap in the formerly continuous historical range of the sea otter.”

The agency released a report over the summer that found reintroduction is biologically, socioeconomically and legally feasible but the 200-page assessment came with the caveat that far more research needs to be done to narrow down potential landing spots, as well as additional public outreach and studies on possible socioeconomic impacts.

USFW did not take a position on whether to proceed.

“In the assessment, we determined that reintroducing sea otters to parts of their former range could help restore nearshore ecosystems, increase gene flow between sea otter populations, benefit the threatened southern sea otter and provide overall economic gains to coastal communities,” Carswell said. “As we go forward, we’ll be working with scientists and a broad range of stakeholders to make sure any actions we’re considering are fully vetted and that we’re taking into account input from everyone who might be a ected.”

Earlier this year, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal petition asking USFW to immediately start the process over “a large stretch of the West Coast,” noting in a statement that the e ort is integral to protecting the southern sea otter by enhancing the subspecies’ ability “to intermingle, enhancing genetic diver- sity and helping them adapt to changing environmental conditions.” Geographically diversifying the population would also provide a bu er to risks from catastrophic localized events, like an oil spill.

“Bringing the sea otter back to the broader West Coast would be an unparalleled conservation success story,” Kristin Carden, a former senior scientist with the center who authored the petition, said in the statement. “Not only would the sea otters thrive, but they would also help restore vital kelp forest and seagrass ecosystems.”

Once believed to have numbered into the hundreds of thousands across a vast Pacific Ocean expanse from northern Japan to Baja California — including the coastal waters of Humboldt, Del Norte, and Mendocino counties — sea otters were hunted to the brink of extinction during the 1700s and 1800s by a maritime fur trade that coveted their luxuriant pelts, which are the thickest of any mammal.

By the time a 1911 international treaty made killing sea otters illegal, only a few