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Op Ed: Reward Offered in Sea Otter Death
updated: Jul 03, 2010, 9:00 AM
By Julia DiSieno, ART
The sad news of the female sea otter found shot in the head last week in Morro Bay is maddening.
A necropsy concluded that the animal was shot to the head with a pellet gun.
We at the Animal Rescue Team, Inc. are offering a $1,000 reward for ANY information leading to the arrest of the person, or persons responsible for this heinous and senseless act.
Please contact the State Department of Fish & Game, or Animal Rescue Team, inc. 805 896-1859 with any information related to the shooting. All tips are confidential.
With the devastation of mammal and wildlife habitat, it is our duty to step up.
The California sea otter is an endangered species success story that is not quite successful. California sea otters are listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act and "depleted" under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The sea otter is the smallest marine mammal in North America yet has a huge affect on its ecosystem, enhancing both diversity and primary productivity. Sea otters are known to be a keystone species, an indicator species and an umbrella species. They have a remarkable impact on conservation of the near-shore marine environment.
Sea otters are also charismatic, intelligent mammals that appeal to people all over the world.
Wiped out by the Pacific maritime fur trade, sea otters were believed to be extinct from California by the early 1900s. A small, remnant population of survivors was found living off the coast of Big Sur in 1938. Legal protections allowed the population to grow. The California population increased to 2,400 in 1995 before mysteriously beginning to decline. It began to grow again in 1999, and has grown in fits and starts until 2009, when the population entered another decline.
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