Who’s shooting, killing sea otters?
Authorities are offering a $10,000 reward for information about crime
SANTA CRUZ — Three California sea otters have been found shot to death in the Santa Cruz area in recent weeks, and authorities on Monday offered a $10,000 reward to anyone with information about the crime.
The three Southern sea otters, one male adult and two younger males, were found dead between the Santa Cruz harbor and Seacliff State Beach in Aptos between Aug. 12 and 19.
Animal autopsies, known as necropsies, found that all three had gunshot wounds and had died days, or weeks, before washing ashore.
“It’s really hard to tell who did this,” said Max Schad, a warden with the California De- partment of Fish and Wildlife.
“Without having a suspect it’s difficult to tell if it’s a malicious person or a fisherman who is mad or someone else. It’s all just speculation.”
A fourth male adult otter also was found dead Aug. 20 near Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, Schad said. A gunshot is suspected, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet, he said.
Commonly known as California sea otters, Southern sea otters are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. They also are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and by California state law. Killing one is punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and jail time.
Hunted relentlessly in the 1800s for their pelts, which are denser and softer than mink fur, California sea otters were feared to be extinct until a small number, about 50, were discovered in remote coves off Big Sur in the 1930s. They were protected by the Endangered Species Act in 1977 and began a slow comeback. Last year, biologists counted 3,054 otters, an encouraging number up from 2,711 in 2010.
But otters — whose historic population numbers are estimated at about 16,000 in California — remain imperiled because they suffer from high mortality rates off the California coast due to parasitic diseases, shark bites and other threats.
For Southern sea otters to be removed from the endangered list, the population would have to exceed 3,090 for three consecutive years, according to a recovery plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Otters eat sea urchins, keeping their populations in balance. If urchins grow too numerous, they overgraze kelp forests that fish and other animals rely on for shelter and food.
“We consider this a serious crime. Sea otters are a keystone species,” said Ashley Spratt, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Ventura. “They play a very important role in the ecosystem. If they are removed, the ecosystem can collapse.”
Otters occasionally have been shot over the past few decades in California.
Last September, a 71year-old Moss Landing man, Richard Niswonger, was sentenced to 150 hours of community service, a $500 fine and six months of probation after he pleaded guilty to a shooting an air rifle at a wailing baby sea otter from a dock in Moss Landing Harbor. He told authorities that the otter, which he missed, had been crying for weeks and he was annoyed at hearing it.
In 2013, three sea otters were found fatally shot at Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove. No one has been prosecuted in that case.
In 1989, three Cambria men, Bruce Magnusen, David Perry and William Walker, were convicted of shooting at a group of sea otters in Estero Bay, near San Luis Obispo. Magnusen, a commercial fisherman, was sentenced to 75 days in jail and fined $2,000. According to prosecutors, he saw the group and suggested to his two friends that they “blow away some otters.” He and one of his friends fired, and at least one dead otter was found nearby afterward with a gunshot wound to the head.
In 2003, a Bakersfield man, John Aaron Bishop, was convicted of shooting a sea otter at Montana de Oro State Park near Morro Bay. In that case, a Boy Scout troop leader found an injured otter, but before the animal could be saved, Bishop walked up with a handgun and shot it, claiming it needed to be put out of its misery.
An investigation into this month’s case is being conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Monterey Bay Aquarium, the state Department of Fish and Game, and a private donor are contributing to the reward.
Anyone with information should contact the state wildlife crimes tip line at 888-334-2258 (callers may remain anonymous) or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 650-876-9078.
Authorities said Monday that anyone who finds a dead sea otter in Santa Cruz County should leave it in place, take a photo if possible, and report it immediately to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife at 831-212-7010.