Ottawa mulls sea otter hunts

Report to weigh whether natives can kill animals without endangering numbers

CARRIE WEST
Globe and Mail
Dec 12, 2006

VICTORIA -- The federal government is considering allowing the hunting of sea otters in B.C. waters by a native group, for the first time in nearly a century.

The sea otter, once slaughtered to near extinction, is currently considered a threatened species in Canada, even though the animals are numerous enough to make a significant dent in local shellfish stocks. Now, the federal government must simultaneously figure out ways to save the sea otter -- while determining whether to actively kill it.

The desires of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations of Vancouver Island to conduct ceremonial hunts are being factored into the scientific "recovery potential analysis" by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said Marilyn Joyce, the marine mammal co-ordinator for the DFO, Pacific region. This report, to be completed by March, should indicate whether sea otters can be killed without endangering the viability of the animal population.

Although such "allowable harm" analyses are common, the sea otter remains the only legally protected marine mammal in B.C. that a native group is currently interested in hunting, Ms. Joyce said. Even if the research determines that actively killing the sea otters would not hurt the population and the DFO were to permit aboriginal hunts, it would still only be the first step with the Nuu-chah-nulth should they make a formal request.

Don Hall, fisheries manager for the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, said tribal members have discussed ceremonial sea otter hunts for a long time.

Dr. Hall said he does not believe that the Nuu-chah-nulth needs federal permission to hunt otters for ceremonial purposes.

"I don't think Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations are not doing this type of ceremonial harvesting because they're waiting for permission from DFO. I just think it's lower priority or they just haven't gotten around to it. Or it's taking place under DFO's radar and they don't even know about it and DFO's trying to now come up with some kind of legal limit for the allowable harm."

Illegal killing does take place in British Columbia. Last summer, five skinned sea otters were found off the west coast of Vancouver Island. "It was pretty obvious that it had been done by human hands," said Linda Nichol, a marine mammal biologist with the DFO.

The sea otter, well known for its dense fur and for floating on its back with its feet poking out of the water, disappeared from B.C. waters for decades due to excess commercial hunting in the 18th and 19th centuries. But between 1969 and 1972, 89 Alaskan sea otters were reintroduced along the west coast of Vancouver Island. Those sea otters multiplied in that area, due to rocks rich in shellfish. B.C. now has about 3,200 sea otters, with 2,600 off Vancouver Island and another 600 near the Goose Islands (the outer coastal waters near Bella Bella).

With this increase, the sea otter has become the foe of the shellfish harvesting industry. Without a blubber layer, sea otters eat about a quarter of their weight each day to stay warm. They also eat a lot of the shellfish desired by the Nuu-chah-nulth, prompting the Nuu-chah-nulth's repeated calls for a sea otter management plan, Dr. Hall said.

Sea otters once inhabited the Pacific Rim from Japan to Baja, Calif. They might have numbered 150,000 to 300,000 throughout their range before the commercial fur trade. Fewer than 2,000 remained in 1911, when the sea otter was protected internationally. Today, sea otters have bounced back to 150,000 in the Pacific Rim, occupying about half their historic range.

In Canada, the sea otter was declared endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada in 1978. In 1996, its status was upgraded to "threatened." Under Canada's Species at Risk Act, the sea otter also is listed as threatened and legally requires a recovery strategy. That strategy, first drafted in 2002, is still being tinkered with, and is being reassessed this year.