Published: August 29th, 2009 09:37 PM
Last Modified: August 29th, 2009 09:37 PM
Last Modified: August 29th, 2009 09:37 PM
............."The reason we're tackling this whole thing is due to a lack of scientific information," Rice said. "It would be nice to verify what we're hearing from commercial fishermen -- they'll go into a bay and see evidence of otter predation all along the shore, and at the same time, they're not catching any crab in their pots."
Hoyt added that they want to try to estimate the take of four commercially important species by sea otters -- Dungeness crab, geoduck clams, urchins and sea cucumbers.
How fishermen and otters might co-exist remains a big question. Complicating the problem: the federal government lists sea otters as a protected species that cannot be harassed in any way................. http://www.adn.com/money/welch/story/915965.html