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Sea Otters in Alaska

 

sea otter eating crab

Sea otters occur in nearshore coastal waters of Alaska from Southeast through the Aleutian Islands, and into Port Moller within southern Bristol Bay. Sea otters are classified as a marine mammal and are under the regulatory authority of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and have been divided into three distinct stocks for management.

sea otter population status map
Sea Otter Population Status in Alaska

 

Sea otter populations made a remarkable recovery from near-extinction during the commercial pelt hunting of the 18th and 19th centuries, but sea otter populations near Kodiak, the Alaska Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands have experienced sharp declines during the 1990s. On February 11, 2004 a notice was published in the Federal Register (http://alaska.fws.gov/media/seaotter2004/69_fr_6600.pdf) by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposing to list the Southwest Alaska Stock of sea otters as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. In the eastern Gulf of Alaska, primarily Southeast Alaska, however, sea otters continue to expand their range and increase in numbers following their re-introduction in the late 1960s following complete extirpation from commercial exploitation. The proposed "threatened" designation for the southwest stock of sea otters will not affect sea otters or any human activities in the Gulf of Alaska east of Cook Inlet, the range of the southcentral and Southeast sea otter stocks.

Sea otters live in nearshore areas, within 3 miles of shore, where human activities are primarily regulated by the State of Alaska. The following publication reviews the state-managed marine fisheries that occur in the area of the Southwest Stock of sea otters, and examines to what extent commercial fisheries may be impacting sea otter populations. There are very few records of incidental mortality of sea otters in commercial fishing gear, and the potential for reducing sea otter prey populations appears to be low.

An indepth overview may be viewed below:

Regional Information Report (RIR) 5J03-02
Overview of State-Managed Marine Fisheries in Southwestern Alaska with Reference to the Southwest Stock of Sea Otters. By Fritz Funk.
  LARGE PDF file * (8,199K) — also available in smaller pieces: Part 1 (1,293K) | Part 2 (1,495K) | Part 3 (1,627K) | Part 4 (1,067K) | Part 5 (1,635K) | Part 6 (1,056K) | Part 7 (1,065K)


Related news/reports

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Sea Otter Issues (http://alaska.fws.gov/media/seaotter2004/index.htm)

ADF&G Wildlife Conservation Marine Mammal Program (http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=marinemammals.main)

For Additional Information
Please contact:
Doug Vincent-Lang
(907) 267-2339

PDF icon* Adobe Acrobat PDF files require a free viewer available directly from Adobe. Need a hard copy of a publication? Contact ADF&G.