California sea otters will start the new year with a vast new
range of territory far south of their government-imposed grounds
north of Point Conception. Beginning on Jan. 18, they are free
to swim south into waters off Los Angeles, San Diego and Baja -
places they frequented before they were forcibly relocated to a
remote Channel Island in the 1980s. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service decided to lift the "no-otter" zone this month after a
thorough review found that the translocation program that
started it was essentially a failure. About 140 sea otters
living between the Mexican border and Point Conception, north of
Santa Barbara, were gathered up and taken to San Nicolas Island
in 1987. The purpose of the move was to establish a colony of
otters far enough away from the coast to protect it from oil
spills or other catastrophes. As coastal marine mammals, sea
otters are particularly susceptible to pollution runoff and
other near-shore toxins. A no-otter zone south of Point
Conception was then instituted to