There's a spot on the Pacific Coast, not too far from Monterey, where you can go and watch the sea otters play. I could watch them for hours: ducking under the water, popping out behind another otter, giving him a playful nip and then disappearing again before he can turn around. Leaping on one another, play-fighting, wrestling, cuddling. In May, if you have a really good pair of binoculars, you can often watch the mothers nursing their young, tiny little balls of fluff and whiskers. If you have a really good camera, you can get some pretty amazing pictures, such as this one by Mike Baird. (Used by permission.)
I know I could watch them for hours, because I have. But it's beginning to look like a distinct possibility that I won't be able to for much longer: the otter population is declining, and nobody really knows why. And, right now, there is next to no funding dedicated to finding out.
If you care, please join me below the break for more details, and to find out what you can do.
First off, let me say thanks for getting this far. If the following wall of text looks too imposing, or if my (lack of) writing style turns you off, I hope you'll skip to the bottom and read the summary, instead of just closing the window. (Or go to my Sea Otter Fund web site and read the left sidebar.) This really is important.
A Smidgen of History
Google can teach you more about the sea otter's history than I can. Basically, there were hundreds of thousands of them, maybe as many as a million in the entire Pacific. In the 1800s they were hunted nearly to extinction, a hunt that only ended (with an international treaty) after the last otter in California was thought to have been killed, and the overall population reduced to a few tiny colonies in inaccessible areas of the Pacific Rim. And then, in 1935, a small colony was found off the coast of the Big Sur. Ever since then, the California sea otter population has been gradually recovering, starting from about 50 in 1938 and breaking the 3000 mark in 2007. Mind you, that's still well below the estimated population before the fur trade, and certainly below what the area has been estimated to be able to support. Nevertheless, biologists were just beginning to heave little sighs of relief, albeit not where anyone could see them doing it.
The Problem
And then, unexpectedly, in 2009, the three-year population average for the sea otter started trending downward. And again in 2010. There were conflicting reports as to why: fewer healthy pups, more disease in adults, mysterious disappearances. It's been blamed on parasites from used cat litter that is flushed down toilets, on shark bites, on a variety of other things, but no one has been able to credibly demonstrate that they're right. And in the mean time, the simple fact is that the population is trending back downward, for reasons no one clearly understands.
That's not to say that no one can understand them, of course. But no one currently does. And the main reason for this is simply that there aren't a whole lot of people trying to. Because there's nothing to pay them with.
Where's the Money?
Right now there is very little money for research on this issue, and by 'very little' I don't mean in government terms. The majority of the money spent for this research comes from the California Sea Otter Fund (more on them later), which last year raised a grand total of about $260,000. The total from all other sources, including everything that the state and federal governments are spending, is less than that. (According to my source at Defenders of Wildlife.)
So, yeah. A keystone species, a species that is estimated to sequester so much carbon that, if they were to return to pre-fur-trade levels they'd be worth $700m in carbon credits alone, and (let's face it) a good contender for the cutest animals in North America. And yet somehow, there isn't the money to find out what's wrong, let alone fix it.
The California Sea Otter Fund
Which brings me to the fund. This was created by cooperation between Defenders of Wildlife and two California State Assemblymen, one named (believe it or not) David Jones. The origin of the bill, according the Monterey Bay Aquarium, was as follows:
Jones and his family visited the nonprofit aquarium in 2005, where they learned about the threats facing the sea otter population. That prompted Jones’ then 5-year-old son Will, in tears, to ask his dad to “do something” to help.
Unfortunately, the utterly fubar nature of state finances in California precluded actually spending any state money on the problem. The best he could do was to set up a system whereby people could donate to sea otter research on their tax forms, a system that was already in place for other charities in California. This, then, is where the $260k last year came from: individual donations, on income tax forms.
There's a wrinkle, though, or rather two wrinkles. The first is that if a fund like the Sea Otter Fund doesn't make a certain amount of money (last year it was about $258,500), it will fall off the tax form the next year, in order to make room for a different (and presumably more popular) charity. And the second is that its check-off fund status needs to be renewed by legislation every five years.
As you can see, it very nearly didn't make its goal last year. And this year, while charitable spending is probably up a little bit, poses a new challenge: a lot of the money that would otherwise go to other charities around this time is going to Japan. It's not clear whether this effect will be big or small, but it seems pretty likely that there will be some effect. And if the Sea Otter Fund makes just $2000 less — not even one percent — in 2011 than it did in 2010, then in 2012 it will make $0.
I don't like those odds.
So What Can We Do?
For California residents, that's easy: donate what you can to the California Sea Otter Fund on your state tax forms. The minimum is one dollar, and it's tax deductible.
And don't think that it doesn't matter if you donate or not. Last year, the fund's fate was decided by less than one percent. That's $2000 in a state with close to 40 million inhabitants. This year, it could easily be less than a tenth of a percent. I would be not at all surprised if, when things are added up, anyone who gave $200 or more to the fund could sit back and say, 'Without me, they wouldn't have made it.'
Another thing you can do, as a California resident, is contact your State Senator and Assemblymember and ask them to support Assembly Member Bill Monning's bill that would renew the Sea Otter Fund for another 5 year stint on the tax form. Without this being passed, the fund goes away next year no matter what it raises.
Finally, and this is for all of you who don't live in California, there is still something you can do. Last year, the Southern Sea Otter Recovery and Research Act was voted on in the house, and not only passed, but was supported by 71 Republicans. This act would dedicate a significant amount of money to sea otter research from the federal government. After passing 316 to 107 in the House, it went on to die (where else) in the Senate.
There aren't a lot of Democrat-sponsored bills that garnered 71 Republican votes in the last session of the House. Even in today's much more contentious climate, this bill might stand a chance of passing. Contact your Senators and your Representative, and tell them that you want them to support a new Southern Sea Otter Recovery and Research Act.
Oh, and if you know anyone who lives in California, give them a call. And if you have a bully pulpit (a blog, a column, a radio show, two tin cans with a string tied between them, whatever) send people to one of the following sites:
http://www.ottrageo.us/ (my site)
http://saveseaotters.org/ (Defenders of Wildlife)
Thanks!
Executive Summary
The sea otter population in California is declining, and this trend is showing signs of continuing. A lot of money is needed to find out why, and, with any luck, reverse this trend. Unfortunately, the choice at the moment is between 'a little money' and 'none at all', and the odds aren't looking very good. Please, if you live in California, donate to the Sea Otter Fund on your California income tax form, as much as you can afford, because if you don't, it may not exist next year. And, with some more bad luck, the otters could soon follow.
Also, please spread the word: send people to http://ottrageo.us
Updated by ottrageous at Wed Mar 16, 2011 at 12:16 AM PDT
All right, I appreciate the attention this has gotten so far, but it took me nearly twice as long as I had budgeted to write it. I need some sleep, to fight off this incipient cold.
I'll pop in in the morning to respond to comments and so forth.