Sea Otters Gain Protection

On October 9, 2009, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 5,855 square miles of nearshore waters along the Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea, and Alaska Peninsula as critical habitat for threatened sea otters in southwest Alaska. This action came under court order resulting from a lawsuit against the Service by the Center for Biological Diversity. In August 2000, the Center petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect sea otters in southwest Alaska under the Endangered Species Act. Then in August 2005, sea otters in this region finally received protections provided by the Act. Fewer than 40,000 otters were estimated to exist in southwestern Alaska in 2005, down from more than 100,000 in the 1970s. The exact cause of the decline remains a mystery, but scientists have speculated that increased predation by killer whales. Sea otters in the area are also threatened by proposals to open Bristol Bay in the Bering Sea to oil development, along with changes to the ecosystem from global warming and overfishing.

The new habitat designation includes all nearshore waters in the current range of the southwest Alaska population of the sea otter and in total making up to 5,855 square miles of habitat. Unfortunately, this proposal fails to protect deeper waters and areas further from shore that the otter also needs to recover.

The article was interesting because it's nice to hear that the government is working hard to protect animals and our wildlife just as much as they are trying to protect the rest of the world. Although I did not agree in the proposal covering only certain areas and depths of water where the otter lives. I think that if the Fish and Wildlife Service should protect all areas of the otter habitat if it is already going through trouble to get the particular areas protected. I also found it interesting since we just talked about how important the otters are to the environment and what a beneficial species they are. It was great to read a current event talking about something we just reviewed in our lessons.

http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/40571

Channing Midgette