Tag Archives: otter population
Bureaucrats’ power on trial in California wildlife dispute
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched a program in Southern California to reintroduce an otter population, imposing penalties for encroaching on the animal’s habitat, Congress passed a law to protect the fishing industry. Federal officials, however, want to penalize fisherman who accidentally encroach on the otters, and now the U.S. Supreme Court will decide how much power those bureaucrats possess. The case, California Sea Urchin Commission v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife, stems from the Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan in 1986 to widen the territory supporting the otter population. >click to read<09:45
Dive fishermen and sea otters face complex competition – “They’re totally eating us out of house and home.”
What many Americans consider to be a cute, back-floating mammal is a pest, even a thief, to some Southeast Alaskan fishermen. Humans and sea otters enjoy consuming the same bottom-dwelling seafood: Dungeness crabs, clams, sea cucumbers and urchins. Competition between dive fishermen and sea otters for those resources has intensified as the otter population grows. Wadley has been a for 27 years. She dove for abalone until the dive fishery closed in 1996. “We had an abalone fishery here until the otters ate us out of it,” Read the article here 08:05
