22 Transplanted Otters Released at New Island Colony but 2 Die

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 22 sea otters in the ocean off San Nicolas Island Saturday in a continuing effort to establish a colony of the threatened species there as a hedge against catastrophe.

But the experiment was not a total success.

“The bad news,” said Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman David Klinger, “is that two of the sea otters didn’t survive. We trapped 24 of them and moved them down here from the waters off San Luis Obispo County, but two males were found dead in their pen.”

Klinger said the other 22 appear to be healthy, and two had escaped into the ocean even before the scheduled release time. “They got out Tuesday,” he said, “and we’ve spotted them around the island since then.”

In the next few weeks, Klinger said, the Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to release about 50 more sea otters near the island, about 60 miles west of Los Angeles, with an eye to preserving the species.

Klinger said there are about 1,650 sea otters along the coast, shielded from hunters by federal protective laws, but their concentration off San Luis Obispo County makes them especially vulnerable to such hazards as oil spills and epidemic diseases.

Not everyone is happy about the plan, however, and a group of fishermen asked for a temporary restraining order to stop the transplantation scheme, on grounds that the otters will destroy shellfish beds in the area.

They said the otters, which are voracious eaters, harvest more than $1 million worth of shellfish from the area each year and could wipe out the entire crop in short order.

That request was turned down in Ventura County Superior Court Friday, but Chase Mellen, an attorney for the fishermen, said he will go to federal court this week to seek a similar federal restraining order.