Ice forces sea otters to tundra's dangers

ANCHORAGE — An unbudging sheath of sea ice has blocked off the waters where the Alaska Peninsula's sea otters forage, forcing the starving animals inland on a search for food and making them easy prey for wolves and humans.

Some otters have waddled or slid on their bellies for several miles onto the tundra near Port Heiden, where they have been attacked by dogs, killed for their pelts or have died of malnourishment.

No one knows how many have come ashore, said village Fire Chief Mark Kosbruk. Local Natives have skinned at least 17 to make hats, gloves and blankets from the luxurious hides, he said.

Once forced onto land, the sea otters' chances of survival fall sharply. They travel awkwardly and slowly, pulling with front paws while dragging flipperlike hind feet.

Their range stretches from the Aleutian Islands to Cook Inlet. They are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, with numbers dropping more than 50 percent in the past 20 years to about 48,000 animals, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act allows Alaska Natives to kill them for food or handicrafts; otherwise, the 1972 law forbids hunting or harassing them.

Federal biologists said similar die-offs have occurred before and they are not quite sure whether they should intervene.

"We're concerned about large concentrations of sea otters that might get trapped and not have a way into the water," said Douglas Burn, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service's sea otter program in Alaska.

"The hard part is, what would we do if we found that? We'd have to ask what are our options," he said.

Kosbruk said he's sad for the starving animals but glad Alutiiq hunting traditions, like sharing the meat and hides with elders, are being preserved in Port Heiden. The Alutiiq village of 79 is about 400 miles southwest of Anchorage.

"We don't hunt for ourselves," Kosbruk said. "We hunt for people who can no longer hunt for themselves."

Andrew Lind, 27, a commercial fisherman who moved to Port Heiden a few years ago, killed his first otters last month.

Lind is giving all of them away, most to elders. He gave the first to his mother and the next to his grandmother, who was planning to make fur hats for children and grandchildren.

"She was very happy and thankful," he said.

Sea otters dive for several minutes at a time to feed on clams or sea urchins on the ocean floor. They normally eat the equivalent of 25 percent of their body weight daily.

The Port Heiden population lives farther north than other Bristol Bay sea otters, and similar freeze-outs have been documented since the early 1970s.