“A federal program that attempted to restrict sea otters to a remote island off Santa Barbara while banning them from most of the rest of Southern California was officially scrapped Tuesday (December 18) after a 25-year run of failure. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its final ruling to end the so-called southern sea otter translocation program and the accompanying ‘no-otter zone.’ Federal officials admitted as far back as 2005 that their efforts to restore California’s ravaged sea otter population by relocating the furry creatures to San Nicolas Island had not worked. ‘Trying to tell a marine mammal to stay on one side of an imaginary line across the water was a dumb idea,’ said Steve Shimek, executive director of the Otter Project, which has been fighting against the program for years. ‘This rule will not only protect sea otters from harm, but because of the otters’ critical role in the environment, it will also help restore our local ocean ecosystem’” (source).
Affiliated Geography Professor Ed Keller summed up the sea otter controversy in his 2011 book, “Santa Barbara, Land of Dynamic Beauty: A Natural History,” pp. 213-214, ISBN 978-1-4507-8388-0):
Sea otters are a keystone species of the kelp forest. That fact is at the heart of arguments in favor of the conservation of this species along the California coast, including the Santa Barbara area. Before commercial hunting of otters brought them to near-extinction, their historic range extended from Baja California to Alaska and Russia. Because they have valuable fur, they were hunted to near-extinction during the 18th and 19th centuries, at which point there were too few otters left to support further hunting. Legal protection of the otters began in 1911, and their population has increased since then to exceed 100,000 otters today. Of these, about 2,700 sea otters live along the California coastline, mostly north of Point Conception, not far from Santa Barbara.
Sea otters are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, as well as the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and an effort to increase their population in California is a long-term goal. Attempts have been made to establish sea otters on some of the Channel Islands, but that effort has been largely unsuccessful. Sea otters are moving as their population has increased, and they have tended to want to move south around Point Conception and into the waters of the Santa Barbara area. There have been regulations on the books to stop this migration, but no one has spoken to the sea otters. Today, the occasional otter is spotted off Isla Vista, Santa Barbara Point, and other local areas. Local fishermen have lobbied to not allow the otters to migrate into our waters, based on the observation that they take the urchins that the fishermen wish to collect and sell. The harvesting of sea urchins in recent years has been a profitable, if small, industry. The eggs (roe) of the urchins are considered a delicacy by some people, and they sell at a good price. Sea otters also feed on abalone and other shellfish. The classic picture of sea otters is a cute animal floating on its back in the kelp forest with a rock in its paws, bashing a shellfish before consuming it. Conservationists argue that the sea otter has an important role to play in our local kelp forest ecosystem. These undersea forests provide an important habitat for many other species of fish and other plants and animals. One of the favorite foods of otters is the sea urchin. The urchins feed on the bottom on the holdfast, which is the root like structure that holds the kelp stem and fronds to the rocky bottom. When there are lots of sea urchins grazing along the bottom and feeding on kelp, they tend to eat and detach the holdfast. The kelp floats free, dies and floats away to perhaps pile up on beaches. Where sea otters are abundant, as for example in some Alaskan kelp beds, there are few urchins. Those areas that lack sea otters and in which sea urchins are abundant have less kelp, and the ecosystem is impoverished, as other species that depend on kelp are less abundant. Of course, harvesting of sea urchins by fishermen plays the same role as the sea otter, and, if sufficient urchins are harvested, then kelp beds will be healthier.
An important point here is that the sea otters are a keystone species, and their presence or absence plays a significant role within the entire system. The otters’ effect does not result from direct intervention by the otters. The otters neither feed on the kelp nor do they protect individual kelp plants from being attacked by sea urchins. Rather, otters reduce the number of sea urchins that are present to eat the kelp. As the amount of kelp increases, there are more habitats for many other species, and, so, the entire biological diversity of the kelp forest is increased. Recently, there have been discussions and meetings to consider the sea otter situation. Should they be allowed to migrate south of Point Conception into the Santa Barbara area, or should we continue practices to try to exclude them? If the sea otter population increases and their tendency to migrate to their old habitats continues, it is difficult to exclude them. You can try to trap them and relocate them, but that hasn’t worked very well. They can be harassed and intimidated to not migrate into our waters, but that also has proven difficult and is questionable in light of the endangered species status of the otters.
Recently, the tide of decision has shifted, and, in all likelihood, the sea otters will slowly migrate from Point Conception to areas further south, including the Santa Barbara area. It will probably be decades before they have any real impact. Due to local pollution of near shore waters, any substantial increase in numbers of otters in the Santa Barbara area is problematic. Should they become established, they would likely improve the health of our kelp forests and also provide an increase in ecotourism activities by people taking guided trips to view otters.
