First Sea Otters Caught in Plan to Relocate 250

In an effort to protect them from potential oil spills along the California coast, federal and state wildlife biologists on Monday captured the first 15 sea otters to be moved to San Nicholas Island, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said.

The first sea otter was caught at 9:08 a.m., 20 minutes after the search was launched several miles off the northwest shores of San Luis Obispo County. By 4:30 p.m., biologists of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Fish and Game Department had 15 otters ready for to be taken to an isolated holding tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Opposed by Fishermen

The otters are to be flown to the island, 55 miles southwest of Santa Catalina, as soon as 15 more have been captured, said David Klinger, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The captures came just six days after the California Fish and Game Commission approved moving 250 of the estimated 1,650 sea otters that live along the California coast between Monterey and San Luis Obispo. The move is strongly opposed by divers and commercial shell fishermen.

The commission’s approval was the final clearance needed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to implement its plan to protect California sea otters from extinction should a major oil spill occur. Hunted to near extinction before the turn of the century, the California sea otter is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

California Ocean Resources Protection Inc., a group representing commercial fishermen and sports divers, says the relocation program will decimate the shell fish population at San Nicholas Island. The group will seek an injunction this week in Ventura County Superior Court to stop the relocation, said Chase Mellen, the organization’s attorney.

The sports divers said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s concern about the otter’s extinction is exaggerated.

“You will never have a 100% extinction through an oil spill,” said Mike Gower, president of the Central California Council of Dive Clubs, which represents 40 clubs and about 3,000 divers in the area. “With this protection they become overpopulated and do great damage to the beaches and the sea life. When it comes to shellfish, otters are like vacuum cleaners.”

Despite the planned litigation, the program went ahead Monday.

Teams of biologists in four motorboats caught the sea otters with dip nets, Klinger said. The biologists wore gloves to protect against bites by the shocked and disoriented mammals, he added.

Once in the boat, the mammals were put in plastic kennels lined with cooling elements to maintain a temperature similar to that of the seawater, Klinger said.

“The crucial thing is to minimize the stress during capture, transportation and release,” Klinger said. “Wild sea otters are a very high-strung species, and their metabolism may increase too much in the presence of humans. If they survive that, they are pretty much all right.”

When 25 sea otters have been taken to the aquarium, they will be put in the cooled kennels again and flown to the Navy’s airstrip on San Nicholas Island, where they will be kept in floating pens several hundred yards offshore for two to five days to get acclimatized, Klinger said.

Then, they will be released and kept from straying from the new colony, Klinger said.

A total of 70 otters are to be relocated this year with another 180 to be moved in future years.