Endangered Species Updated - December 1996 - Vol. 13, No 12 Organochlorine Contaminants in Sea Otters: The Sea Otter as a Bio-Indicator

Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were once distributed throughout the North Pacific Rim from the Kuril Islands to Baja California, with estimates of the worldwide population between 150,000-300,000 individuals (Marine Mammal Commission 1992; see Anderson et al., this issue). Fur harvesting during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries nearly exterminated the species, and by the early 1900s the total world population had been reduced to an estimated 1,000-2,000 individuals; the California population was estimated at fewer than 50 animals (Kenyon 1969). Since sea otters were legally protected in 1911 by the International Fur Seal Treaty these remnant colonies, and others established by relocations, have increased (Estes 1990).