State Closes Island Colony to More Otters : Wildlife: The decision may lead to a dispute with federal biologists over the future of the 15 adult mammals who remain on San Nicolas.

A three-year effort to establish a spinoff colony of California sea otters 60 miles off the coast of Ventura at San Nicolas Island has failed, the California Fish and Game Commission ruled Friday.

No more of the threatened sea otters may be captured and moved to the remote island in efforts to avert extinction of the species in the case of an oil spill, the commission ruled over the objections of federal wildlife biologists.

The ruling Friday set the stage for a possible dispute with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over what to do next with the otters that remain at San Nicolas, although the initial reaction of federal officials was that they will not challenge the state’s decision.

Of 137 otters initially removed from coastal waters off Monterey and Big Sur and transplanted to San Nicolas Island, only 15 adult otters remain. There are also three nursing pups.

The state did not rule Friday on whether the remaining otters must be recaptured and returned to the main population in the Monterey area. But Fish and Wildlife Service officials said they intend to keep the otters at San Nicolas Island, where federal biologists will continue monitoring their habits.

The state’s action came on a request by federal biologists to capture and move 18 more animals to the island over the coming year, a proposal that was rejected. The federal officials planned to surgically implant radios in the chest cavities of the fur-bearing mammals to track their movements and study their behavior.

Despite the small number of otters remaining at San Nicolas, a Navy-owned island off the coast of Ventura, the San Nicolas otters are becoming a stable, reproducing colony, said biologist Galen Rathbun of the Tiedras Blancas office of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

But California Fish and Game Commissioner Albert C. Taucher called the effort a “complete flop.”

“I feel very strongly that the program has failed,” he said.

Taucher also questioned whether the program to set up a colony at San Nicolas is necessary, when the main population that ranges more than 200 miles along the Northern California coast has increased by 25% since 1987.

That population, once driven nearly to extinction by hunters, has risen from 1,300 to about 1,700, federal biologists agree. But the count this year shows the numbers are down 10% from 1989, Rathbun said.

Nevertheless, at Taucher’s urging, the commission voted unanimously to deny the federal permit to continue the three-year-old program.

“I still love the little otter and I think he is cute as hell, but as long as the population has gained 400, I will move for denial,” Taucher said.

The ruling disappointed federal biologists, but it did not surprise them. The Fish and Game Commission warned last August that federal biologists would have to show that the program was succeeding by this summer or forfeit their permit.

The Fish and Wildlife Service could continue the program without the blessing of the state because the otter is protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, said Marvin L. Plenert, regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service who is based in Portland. But that is unlikely, he said.

“If I didn’t want the answer, I wouldn’t have asked the question,” he said. But the Fish and Game Commission, a five-member board made up of lay people advised by professional staff, was wrong to call the program a failure, he said.

“Any time you do a translocation, you always have a decline in the initial population before they stabilize,” he said. “It’s normal to get an 80 to 90, even a 100% decline.”

Federal biologists will continue to monitor the remaining otters on the island and keep the voracious shellfish-eating animals out of a “no-otter zone” established for commercial fishermen from Point Conception south to San Diego, Plenert said.

Fish and Wildlife agreed to capture otters found in the zone as part of its permit and as a concession to commercial fishermen, who have expressed strong fears for years that the otters could deplete their valuable fishing grounds surrounding the Channel Islands.

But with Friday’s permit denial, commercial fishermen said they are worried that the federal government will lose its incentive to monitor the area. Even with the best of incentives and intentions, fishermen said, Fish and Wildlife has failed to keep the otters at home on San Nicolas.

Of the 137 moved to the island, nine have been found dead of various causes, including one found at Point Mugu in 1987, shot and wrapped in chains. Thirty have returned to their homes in Northern California, and 80 are missing and unaccounted for.

Only three have been captured in the no-otter zone, despite the numbers that must have navigated their way through the area on their way home, fishermen said.

In addition, biologists have not been able to capture a male otter known to be living at Anacapa Island, where they have observed him trying to mate with harbor seals.

It was no surprise that federal biologists could not keep the zone clear of otters as they claimed they could three years ago, said Clay Phipps of the Central California Diving Council.

“You’re dealing with nasty seas, thousands of miles of open ocean and this little critter you’re supposed to find,” Phipps said.