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Sea Otter Slaughter Stopped
posted on July 6, 2010
In a recent Times Colonist article about sea otter research it was stated that “The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council has indicated it would like to conduct a kill of sea otters for traditional ceremonial purposes, but no such hunt is imminent.”
In May 2009 Lifeforce started a letter writing. Several requests to DFO asking if the kill was approved were not answered.
The Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council in British Columbia wanted to kill at least 20 sea otters every year for “ceremonial” purposes. Permitting a sea otter slaughter is not only cruel but opens the door to the killing of other marine mammals such as whales.
In Canada sea otters are list as of special concern but the exact numbers aren’t known. They haven’t fully recovered. There are less than 3500 in BC. They have only repopulated 25% to 33% of historic territory over many decades. The impacts of fishing, boat strikes and other causes of death are also undetermined.
The Nuu-Chah-Nulth is targeting a population of approximately 2000 in their territory. This population is at risk of extinction from an oil spill, pollution, disease, fishing, boat strikes and human threats which now includes a potlatch fur trade. Approximately 3000 sea otters alone died during the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in 1989.
Sea Otters maintain a balance and prevent “sea urchin barrens”- the destruction of kelp forests that provides habitat for a diversity of marine life including threatened fish stocks. So every sea otter matters for their survival and their protection of natural ecosystems.
Thank you to all who wrote to the Canadian Fisheries Minister. It has stopped the slaughter of sea otters.
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