SAN JOSE, Calif. — Relocating sea otters to places in Northern California and Oregon where they haven’t lived for generations, including possibly using helicopter rides to move a few dozen from the Monterey Bay area into San Francisco Bay, is feasible and could help expand populations of the endangered marine mammals.
But there are sensitive economic issues that have to be worked out first, chief among them how it might affect commercial fishermen who catch species like Dungeness crab that sea otters also like to eat.
That was the conclusion this week from a new report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The 200-page study, required by Congress, provided momentum to the growing idea among many marine biologists and environmentalists that the best way to help restore endangered sea otters is to spread their numbers out over a wider area across the West Coast.
