A federal court has ruled against fishing groups that sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over an abandoned program to establish a sea otter colony on San Nicolas Island.
The plan never worked. By the early 1990s, the Fish and Wildlife Service had stopped moving otters — protected under the Endangered Species Act — to the island off Ventura County.
In 2012, the agency officially ended the program after a lengthy environmental review.
That move also officially eliminated a “no-otter zone” south of Point Conception. It had been set up as a compromise for fishermen and others potentially affected by the experimental population of sea otters moved into the area.
While the agency hadn’t relocated any otters out of the zone in 20 years, some fishing groups argued that eliminating the program put them at risk of prosecution if they accidentally killed an otter in the area.
In the lawsuit filed in 2013, the fishing groups argued the Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t have the authority to end the program.
The judge, however, disagreed, ruling against the groups last week.
Several environmental groups, including The Otter Project, Environmental Defense Center and Los Angeles Waterkeeper, applauded the court’s decision, saying eliminating the so-called “no otter zone” allows the threatened otters to return to their historic range.
An attorney for the fishing groups said they were disappointed in the ruling and had not yet made a decision on whether to appeal.