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THE INDEPENDENT
september 12 , 2013
we called it pretty accurately the way it devolved,” said Rebuck, who suspects that San Nic was a ploy to expand the species’ range, a theory growing riper every year as otters thrive better there now than anywhere, today numbering 59. Liquornik calls the otter pressure from both north and south “double jeopardy,” laughing,“They planned that one out perfectly.” In retrospect, the law looks rather ridiculous, but Estes contends it was more about politics and wishful thinking than strategy.“There was some fairly weak decision-making that went on,” he said.“But I don’t know what else the Fish & Wildlife Service could have done. They were stuck with a really tough problem.” The political pressure persisted into the early ’90s, when Fish & Wildlife first tried to declare the program a failure but ran into opposition from the California Department of Fish & Game, which was reluctant to undermine the fishing industry; the offshore oil industry, which saw the otter as a threat until the drilling moratorium in 1994; and the U.S. Navy, which feared otter impact on its San Nic war games. The status quo, in which otters were left to their own devices but fishermen and others retained a regulation-free zone south of Point Conception, persisted for decades. Then, in 2009, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of The Otter Project by the Santa Barbara–based Environmental Defense Center (EDC), demanding that Fish & Wildlife finalize the failure determination, terminate the “nootter zone,” and extend federal protections to Southern California waters. The EDC prevailed, and last December, Fish & Wildlife declared Public Law - dead, officially ending both translocation and the no-otter zone — neither of which were active for 20 years — but also, for the first time, increasing the otter’s Endangered Species Act protections to SoCal waters. Fishing groups immediately threatened to sue and did so in July, when the Pacific Legal Foundation — on behalf of the Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara, the California Sea Urchin Commission, the California Abalone Association, and the California Lobster and Trap Fishermen’s Association — filed suit, arguing that Fish & Wildlife can’t end a program that Congress created. The first hearing is September 13, when a judge will decide whether the EDC, The Otter Project, and the Friends of the Sea Otter can help defend the federal government as interveners. Most view the lawsuit as merely stalling the inevitable extension of otter protections everywhere, but fishermen are trying hard to inform the public of what that may mean while dreaming about a compromise that would incorporate their needs.“We want awareness that, as they move south, shellfisheries in this region will be eliminated,” lobster diver Chris Voss explained amid the Santa Barbara Fishermen’s Market, where people buy urchins, crabs, black cod, and other fish straight from the fishermen. “And if that’s the case, maybe we want to balance human use and otter use. There must be some way.” Such a way remains unclear. The vague fisherman refrain of “ecosystem management,” which they interpret as protecting fisheries and otters, sounds a lot like the otter relocation idea that already failed and reflects an older era when economics more easily trumped nature. The only concrete methods came from Sue Bennett, who’s been studying otters since 1973 but doesn’t have the recovery-at-all-costs bent of most scientists and advocates. She suggests allowing fishermen to harass otters in selected zones until they learn to stay away and, at the fringes of the range, culling, which is to say killing, the males. But she readily admits such ideas would have a hard time getting approved, given the current mindset of nature first, humans second. She explained,“Maybe it’s time to think outside of the box, look at what’s really happening here, and say,‘If there were no rules or regulations, how would you handle this?’” No one denies that otters may one day end the regional urchin business, but Fish & Wildlife’s Carswell feels many fishing concerns are overblown, particularly since the species are expanding so slowly.“It’s a pretty gradual process,” she said. “And no one’s ever been prosecuted for taking an otter.” Perhaps more to the point, though, is that rules regarding otters aren’t going away, even when they achieve a stable population of 3,090 individuals and come off the Endangered Species Act. That will only trigger a new round of regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which aims to bring the population past 8,000 animals.“Really,” said Carswell, “people should get used to protected status for sea otters.”
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