Oregon's Missing Otters

by Michele Taylor

Oregon harbors two sea otter colonies - totaling only six animals. All are Alaskan or Californian imports that reside in captivity at the Washington Park Zoo in Portland and the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.

Oregonians will actually never see the state's native otters either in captivity or in the wild because Russian, European and American fur-traders exterminated them more than 150 years ago.

However, Portland resident Dave Hatch is working toward the next best thing, releasing Alaska or California otters off the Oregon coast.

Hatch, a tribal council member for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in Oregon, wants to see otters' furry heads bobbing in the sea swell as his ancestors did.

He founded the Elakha Alliance, named for the Chinook-jargon word for sea otter, to restore the animals to Oregon's coast and re-establish a healthy near-shore ecosystem.

The alliance comprises scientists and conservationists from the Audubon Society of Portland, Ecotrust, the Washington Park Zoo, Portland State University, Oregon State University, the University of Oregon and the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

The Elakha Alliance had to figure out which of the two subspecies, the California or the Alaska, is the closest genetic cousin to Oregon's extinct species because that subspecies will have the best survival chances.

Molecular biologists from Portland State University extracted DNA from sea otter bones found in the middens of ancient coastal settlements, 2,500-year old trash heaps from coastal ruins near Bandon, Oregon, and compared it with DNA samples from the two subspecies of otters. Test results indicate that the California otters match Oregon's otters.

In fact, the continued existence of Californian sea otters may depend on the animals finding a home in Oregon Their numbers are declining due to high levels of motor effluent, PCBs, infectious bacteria in their native waters and many otters become tangled in fishing nets and drown.

Recently, a cruise ship deliberately dumped more than 30,000 gallons of sewage near a sea otter refuge in Monterey Bay. Hatch says California sea otters brought to Oregon would thrive within boundaries of marine protected areas-- tracts of ocean where fishing, drilling, mining and dumping are prohibited.

Besides restoring near-shore habitat, another goal of marine reserves is to preserve the cultural values of coastal inhabitants. Centuries ago, robes made from sea otter pelts were an important part of coastal peoples' regalia, Hatch says.

When 18th and 19th century fur traders swept through Oregon, Indians bartered otter skins for items they had never seen before: glass beads, cloth, metal knives and cooking pots.

As the animals neared extinction, Indians could no longer replace the ceremonial dress they had traded away. Now, examples can only be found in 200-year old illustrations.

However, Hatch points out that his motivations for bringing sea otters back to Oregon are environmentally based. As otter numbers began to diminish hundreds of years ago, their near-shore ecosystem collapsed. Purple sea urchins, otters' main food source, began to proliferate.

The urchins overgrazed on kelp beds, obliterating the habitat of thousands of marine species. Now, urchin barrens cover much of Oregon's ocean floor where kelp forests once thrived and juvenile fish played hide and seek with larger predators.

When Oregon has sea otters in the wild, Hatch says, then all Oregonians can appreciate the environment his ancestors saw for thousands of years.