South Sea Otters Decline

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Problems: Catalysts Contributing to the Southern Sea Otter Population Decline
The major threat to the Sea otter was the oil spills.
The sea otters, especially the southern sea otters become hypothermic when oiled. What contributed to their vulnerability to oil is that their fur can lose insulative property, meaning they lost the ability to store things.
Oil can be ingested whilst grooming, which leads to gastrointestinal diseases, other ailments, and death.
Volatile components of oil inhalation causes lung damage. Sea otter fishings are another cause for their declining population. The population's decline is mostly due to the summer commercial fisheries.
Gill and trammel nets play a significant role in this, because of their tendency to drown and entangle the …show more content…

Sources: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/7750/0 http://www.defenders.org/sea-otter/threats http://www.kidsplanet.org/tt/seaotter/pdf/readthreats.pdf http://seaotters.org/pdfs/threats.pdf http://seaotterresearch.org/pollutants.shtml Recovery Play
Reduce the use of gill and trammel nets
Sea otters are caught and killed in fishing nets
Fisherman trying to make money
Strangled
Can't clean fur- the can freeze to death
Efforts to reduce the use of fishing nets to prevent otters from getting caught
Laws have been created to lower the use of nets from Waddell Creek (Santa Cruz) to Point Sal (Santa Barbara)
Give the otters the best possible environment to thrive
Let the otters recover on their own
Give them a safe habitat, abundance of food, limit diseases and less predators
With the right conditions they will be able to recover in the fastest and most efficient way
Limit human interference
Boat traffic and fishing
Fishing
Oil spills
Pollution
Relocation
In case of a catastrophic event the otters will survive
Currently a major oil spill would completely wipe out the population
The conditions could prove better for the population to increase

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