Controversial Relocation Effort : 24 Sea Otters Get First Look at New Home

The first 24 California sea otters arrived at San Nicolas Island on Thursday on the fourth day of a controversial relocation effort by federal and state wildlife agencies.

After being caught off the San Luis Obispo County coast and held at a secluded tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium earlier this week, the 24 otters--the first of 70 scheduled for relocation this year--were flown from the Monterey Peninsula Airport to the Navy’s airstrip on the island, said David Klinger, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Six federal and state biologists accompanied the animals.

One of the sea otters, a young female, was reported as looking “sluggish” at the aquarium late Wednesday night, Klinger said, but she “snapped out of it” Thursday morning and biologists decided to include her in the airlift.

Held in Pens

Once on the island, the 24 sea otters were put in holding pens submerged several hundred yards off the island’s northern shores. After two to five days of acclimatization, they will be released, Klinger said. The capture of more sea otters off San Luis Obispo County shores was expected to resume Thursday afternoon.

Last week, the California Fish and Game Commission voted to move 250 of the estimated 1,650 sea otters living along the Central California coast to protect the species from the possibility of an offshore oil spill.

The commission’s decision came despite strong opposition from divers and commercial fishermen, who say the shellfish-eating sea otters will hurt their business and damage the environment.

Attorneys for the California Ocean Resources Preservation Inc., an umbrella group of commercial and sports divers and fishermen, threatened legal action to stop the relocation.

Zeke Grader, director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Assns., which represents about 3,000 California fishermen, said at least 235 commercial fishermen fish around San Nicolas Island; 210 of them are after lobster, abalone and sea urchin, also said to be on the sea otters’ menu. In 1985, the last year for which figures are available, fishermen caught $1.3-million worth of shellfish around the island, Grader said.

“We’re distressed about the relocation. . . . I think it is a case where man loses and otter wins,” said Mike Gower, president of the Central California Council of Dive Clubs, which represents 40 clubs and about 3,000 divers in the area and is independent of the umbrella group. “San Nicolas Island is a very popular diving spot. The sea otters will denude the sea life there.”

Gower said divers are also concerned that sea otters will migrate to the other Channel Islands and do additional damage to the underwater environment there. At a distance of 30 and 55 miles respectively, Santa Barbara and Santa Catalina islands are the two channels islands closest to San Nicolas Island.

“It is totally ridiculous to think you can pick up otters in the open ocean,” Gower said. “They are going to migrate to all the other islands.”

But Klinger said biologists will remain on the island until the end of fall to monitor the otters’ movement and retrieve those who stray. Transponders, small electronic devices the size of a grain of rice, will be injected under the skin of the San Nicolas Island otters to allow identification, while brightly colored tags will be attached to their flippers, Klinger said.

“There is some risk that individual otters will try to migrate,” Klinger said. “But their tendency to congregate and the fact that they rarely dive any deeper than 75 feet for their food will keep their attraction to the other islands to a minimum.”