Leaders of two federally recognized Oregon coastal Indian tribes have called upon U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to “take all appropriate actions” to direct the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to return sea otters — known to tribal ancestors as Xulh-t’ush, Giye’we, or Ela-ke’ — to the Oregon coast within the next five years.
The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians (CTCLUSI) and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (CTSI) have sent letters to Haaland. In the letters, Bradley Kneaper, chairman of the CTCLUSI Council, and Delores Pigsley, chairman of the CTSI Council, cited the cultural ties between coastal Indian people and sea otters extending back thousands of years.
“Our ancestors knew Xulh-t’ush as a relative who brought prosperity and plenty to our people,” Pigsley and Kneaper said in a statement issued last week, noting the critical importance of sea otters to the ecological health of the ocean. “Science teaches us what our ancestors knew, that these creatures are indeed a keystone species that creates and maintains kelp forest habitat conditions in nearshore ecosystems. Sea otters were thus central to the way of life our ancestors enjoyed for thousands of years, until both sea otters and the way of life they supported were destroyed in the 1800s.”
Once found across the North Pacific Ocean from Japan to Mexico, sea otters were hunted nearly to extinction for their valuable fur more than a century ago. They have recovered on the central California coast and, thanks to reintroduction in the late 1960s and early 1970s, on the coasts of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, Vancouver Island, and Southeast Alaska.
But the tribal leaders point out that sea otters remain absent from the entire Oregon and northern California coastline and as a result, “our nearshore ecosystem has experienced dramatic changes.”
“Without sea otters, instead of productive kelp forests, our rocky seafloor is covered in ‘urchin barrens,’ biological deserts of purple sea urchins that have devoured these kelp forests and all that they provide to the ecosystem,” Kneaper and Pigsley said. “We feel strongly that the time has come to bring Xulh-t’ush back to Oregon and call on Secretary Haaland to direct the USFWS to prioritize returning sea otters to the Oregon coast, set a timeline, prepare a plan, and take other steps necessary to pursue this act of environmental and cultural reconciliation.”
Kneaper and Pigsley pledged to assist the secretary and the USFWS toward “bold action that will strengthen our environment, our economy, and our homelands.”
The tribal leaders noted that members of both tribes were instrumental in founding the Elakha Alliance, an Oregon nonprofit organization that has a mission to restore sea otters to the ocean of Oregon, and pointed out that tribal members continue to serve as board members.
They cited the work of the Elakha Alliance in building public support, laying “a solid foundation of scientific information” for the return of sea otters, and working with local fishermen to reduce or avoid impacts when sea otters return.
Background
The otters are a keystone species, meaning many other marine species largely depend on them, and their absence has myriad effects, especially on kelp and seagrass forests and species that depend on those oceanic forests. The otters eat sea urchins that attack kelp.
The otter has been listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act since 1977. They were nearly hunted to extinction for their fur throughout the 1700s and 1800s.
Southern sea otters consume more than 150 different species, including mussels, crabs and clams. The reintroduction of the otters could also result in restrictions or prohibitions on some fishing gear to protect the otters from becoming caught or hurt, according to the news release.
Scientists from the agency concluded in a feasibility study that the benefits of their reintroduction outweigh the potential negative impacts to fishing and shellfish harvesting. As a keystone species, their return would enhance the health of kelp and seagrass ecosystems and the fish that depend on them, potentially increasing some fish populations. Growing kelp and seagrass forests is also helpful for reducing ocean acidification and for trapping climate change causing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held eight open houses along the Oregon coast in June 2023 to share a proposal for reintroducing southern sea otters — one of three subspecies of sea otter — to the Pacific Coast from San Francisco and up through northern Oregon.
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