CA - Urchin harvesters tried to reduce protections for sea otters: Here's why it didn't work

Despite recent efforts by sea urchin harvesters to reduce protections for southern sea otters under the Endangered Species Act, the species is still at risk, federal officials say.

The fuzzy marine mammals, often seen swimming around San Luis Obispo County coastal areas such as Morro Bay and Avila Beach, will remain classified as "threatened," according to a species status assessment report published on Sept. 19 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"We're very pleased with the decision," said Gena Bentall, director and senior scientist for Central Coast-based nonprofit organization Sea Otter Savvy. "We're keenly aware of the threats that the southern sea otter population faces in its current status, so I'm certainly pleased, but not surprised."

Southern sea otters used to populate the coast from Oregon to Baja California in Mexico. However, the maritime fur trade during the 18th and 19th centuries decimated the species.

Now, fewer than 3,000 otters, according to the most recent count in 2019, occupy the California coast from around Pigeon Point near San Jose to Gaviota State Beach in Santa Barbara County.

The current population likely all descended from about 50 sea otters that survived the fur trade near Bixby Creek in Monterey County, according to Fish and Wildlife.

Sea Otter Savvy staff and volunteers counted roughly 50 otters calling the Morro Bay estuary home in recent weeks, according to Bentall.

Fish and Wildlife has estimated California could host more than 17,000 southern sea otters, provided there is enough food for the creatures.

The southern sea otter was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1977.

Although there have been dedicated efforts in the decades since to restore the species' population, those efforts have been met with several challenges.

Threats from diseases, parasites and shark bites hinder southern sea otters from repopulating to historical numbers, especially along the Central Coast, according to the Fish and Wildlife assessment.

Petition to delist southern sea otters filed by sea urchin harvesters

In their March 2021 petition to delist the southern sea otter from the federal Endangered Species Act, the California Sea Urchin Commission and Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara argued that disease and shark predation "do not threaten the sea otter with extinction in the foreseeable future but are, at most, natural checks on the species' continued expansion."

The growth of the southern sea otter population along the Central Coast has created issues for the sea urchin harvesters, the petition added.

"Sea otters voraciously consume sea urchins, depleting the stock and frustrating sustainable harvest efforts," the petition said. "Regulations resulting from the sea otter's listing also interfere with sustainable harvest (of sea urchins) by exposing urchin divers to the threat of significant criminal and civil penalties should their activities disturb an otter."

The petitioners noted that, while they want the southern sea otter population to recover, they hope that Fish and Wildlife will implement legal protections for fishermen to reduce their risk of liability for disturbing otters while harvesting sea urchins.

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