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[26] A colony of translocated sea otters near San Nicholas Island is showing population growth after ten years of low numbers. In 1991, only 16 individuals remained out of the original 139 from only a year prior, however, the current population is around 100 otters which follows the trend of other successful sea otter translocations.
The sea otter was once abundant in a wide arc across the North Pacific ocean, from northern Japan to Alaska to Mexico. By 1911, hunting for the animal's luxurious fur had reduced the sea otter population to fewer than 2000 individuals in the most remote and inaccessible parts of its range. The IUCN lists the sea otter as an endangered species.
Federal wildlife officials have taken the first step toward potentially reintroducing sea otters to their former habitats in Northern California and Oregon. Sea otters were hunted to near-extinction.
The sea otter population is thought to have once been 150,000 to 300,000, [24] stretching in an arc across the North Pacific from northern Japan to the central Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. The fur trade that began in the 1740s reduced the sea otter's numbers to an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 members in 13 colonies.
It is home to a growing, healthy population of southern sea otters, which were almost hunted into extinction by the early part of the 1900s. Today, ...
Retrospective estimates of worldwide sea-otter numbers before the bulk exploitation of these mammals range from 150,000 to 300,000. [42] Sea otters are "slow breeders, only one sometimes two pups being born at a time" each year, which makes the population vulnerable in conditions of intensive hunting. [43] [44]
They were nearly hunted to extinction back in the 1700s and 1800s, and while the population has recovered, the number one threat to sea otters today are oil spills caused by humans.
The trade boomed around the turn of the 19th century. A long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted, the maritime fur trade diversified and transformed, tapping new markets and commodities while continuing to focus on the Northwest Coast and China. It lasted until the middle to late 19th century.