Southern Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (2024)

Southern sea otters, also known as California sea otters,can be found in nearshore areas along the central California coastline, including areas of high human activity, like harbors. As a keystone species, they play a fundamental role in the natural food web, and keep important elements of coastal ecosystems like kelp forests and seagrass beds in balance.

Kelp forests provide numerous benefits, including habitat for hundreds of invertebrate and fish species, reductions in coastal erosion and carbon storage that can moderate climate change climate change
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Unlikewhales and seals,sea otters lack blubber. Instead, theyrely on theirdensefur coat andelevatedmetabolismto stay warm. The average adult sea ottermusteat 20 to 30 percent of its body mass in food each day just to meet its energy requirements. Sea otters need to conserve energy, which means thatuninterrupted restisan important part their well-being.To minimizethe potential fordisturbanceand harmto sea otters,people sharingsea otter habitat should:

• Maintaina safe distance - ifa seaotternotices you, you are likely too close and should back away

• Keepkayaksat least 60 feet(or five kayak lengths)away, passingby parallelrather than pointing directly atanyanimals andmoving slowly but steadily pastrather thanstopping

• Keep pets on a leash on and around docks and harbors and never allow interactions, even if the animals appear to beplaying

• Never feedsea otters, as theycan become aggressive, which could result in their removal from thepopulation

Like allsea ottersalongthe North Pacific rim, southern sea otters were hunted to near extinctionduringthe fur tradeofthe 1700s and 1800s.The subspecies survived becausea few dozen animalseluded hunters off the rugged coast of BigSur. Southern seaotters arenowprotected under the Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act and California state law. The southern sea otter population hasgrown slowlysince receivingfederalprotectionsin the 1970s, fluctuating around 3,000 in recent years.

Learn more from the U.S. Geological Survey population survey for southern sea otters.

To supportsouthernsea otter recovery,we translocated140sea otters from thecentral California coastto San Nicolas Islandin the late 1980sto createa secondarypopulationto bufferagainstthe chance of extinction.Most sea ottersimmediatelyswam back to their home rangeorintoother areas of California,andsome died,but about a dozen stayed, forming a small core population thatgrew slowly for many years.One requirement of thattranslocation programwas that sea otters entering a no-otter management zone, whichextended throughout southern Californiaexceptthetranslocation zone around San Nicolas Island, be removed by non-lethal means.Non-lethal removalprovedimpractical, expensive, harmful to the animals removed, and due to the stronghoming impulse of sea otters, it also proved futile.We terminated the program and its associated zones in2012.Now, more thanthree decadesafter the program was initiated,thepopulationisgrowingmorerapidly,though it remainssmalland representsless than five percent of the southern sea otter populationoverall.

Range expansion is a key part of southern sea otter recovery and is critical to the restoration of ecosystems in which sea otters evolved as a keystone predator. Southern sea otters have reached carrying capacity in the central part of the mainland range, with mortality from shark bites at the range peripheries preventing range expansion from happening naturally. As a result of shark-bite mortality, no net range expansion has occurred in more than 20 years.

Under a directive from Congress,we worked with partners and stakeholders in 2021 to evaluate the feasibility of reintroducing sea otters to the West coast of the contiguousU.S., where sea otters historically thrived.Assessment of feasibility is the first step in anyreintroduction effort, but it is not a reintroduction proposal.If reintroduction consideration continued, any reintroduction proposal would be developedwithextensiveinput from a broad range of stakeholders.

Weare currentlyreviewing the status of the southern sea otter under the Endangered Species Act.The species status assessment isbased onthe best available scientific and commercial data regarding the species, including population trends, distribution, demographics, genetics, habitat conditions, threats and conservation measures. By thoroughly reviewing the best available data,wewillhave a better understanding of allthefactors influencing the sustainability of southern sea otters in the wild - now and into the future.