8" X 12" Print $35
12" X 18' Print $55
16" X 24" Print $110
20" X 30" Print $180
24" X 36" Print $260
30" X 40" Print $340
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dsf-7-000173.jpg
Southern (Californian) Sea Otter,Enhydra lutris nereis
Sea otters, whose numbers were once estimated at 150,000–300,000, were hunted extensively for their fur between 1741 and 1911, and the world population fell to 1,000–2,000 individuals in a fraction of their historic range. A subsequent international ban on hunting, conservation efforts, and reintroduction programs into previously populated areas have contributed to numbers rebounding, and the species now occupies about two-thirds of its former range. The spring 2007 sea otter survey counted 3,026 sea otters in the central California coast, down from an estimated pre-fur trade population of 16,000. California's sea otters are the descendants of a single colony of about 50 southern sea otters discovered near Big Sur in 1938; their principal range is now from just south of San Francisco to Santa Barbara County. In the late 1980s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relocated about 140 California sea otters to San Nicolas Island in southern California, in the hope of establishing a reserve population should the mainland be struck by an oil spill. To the surprise of biologists, the San Nicholas population initially shrank as the animals migrated back to the mainland, As of 2005, only 30 sea otters remained at San Nicholas, thriving on the abundant prey around the island. The plan that authorized the translocation program had predicted that carrying capacity would be reached within 5 to 10 years.