Continuing sea otter population declines in the Aleutian archipelago
Estes JA, Tinker MT, Doroff AM, Burn DM. 2005. Continuing sea otter population declines in the Aleutian archipelago. Marine Mammal Science. 21(1):169-172
Recently published data demonstrated a sea otter population collapse across the Aleutian archipelago (Doroff et al. 2003). This assessment, undertaken in response to earlier reports of precipitous declines at several islands (Estes et al. 1998), was based on archipelago-wide aerial surveys conducted in 1965, 1992, and 2000, and skiff surveys of particular islands or small island groups during various years from the early 1990s through 2000. To summarize the main findings: (1) aerial counts declined by about 70% from 1992 to 2000, (2) populations at those islands thought by Kenyon (1969) to be at or near carrying capacity in 1965 had declined 88% by 2000, (3) most of the overall decline occurred after the late 1980s or early 1990s, and (4) sea otters had reached a uniformly low population density (numbers per unit length of shoreline) throughout the Aleutian archipelago by 2000.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Estes, J; Tinker, M; Doroff, A; Burn, D
- Units
- ANIA , GLBA , KEFJ , SEAN , SWAN
- Keywords
- Aleutian Islands, Killer Whale, Marine Mammals, Mustelids, Population Ecology, Predation, Sea Otter, Threatened Species