Southward expansion

OTTER-WATCHER alert: A recent survey suggests the range of the California sea otter has dipped farther south than its usual Central Coast digs. Although they still hang around the Monterey Peninsula and pester kayakers at Elkhorn Slough, some otters are now roaming to Point Conception and even, on rare occasions, to Santa Barbara. But the bad news is there may be slightly fewer to see. A spring count by the U.S. Geological Survey and other agencies and organizations found that the California sea otter population dipped 3.2% to 2,735 animals -- down from a record high of 2,825 last year. The sea otter once roamed from the Central Coast to the Baja Peninsula but it was hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century and listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1977. According to USGS scientist Jim Estes, who headed the project, the trick to seeing otters is to look hard. “They are quite small and very distinctive,” says Estes. “You usually can see them resting in kelp beds, fluffed up above the kelp.” Go to www.werc.usgs.gov/otters/. A USGS video on the research project can be viewed online at online.wr.usgs.gov/outreach/index.html.

-- Janet Cromley