Southern sea otters, also called California sea otters, will maintain their status as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday .
A petition to delist the otters jeopardized their ESA protections last year, but following a 12-month, in-depth review of the species’ status, the Service found that delisting the otters was not warranted.
It’s good and bad news for environmentalists who expressed concern about the otters’ status in 2022. Nearly 50 years after being listed in 1977, they still face significant threats, and some scientists worried that taking away ESA protections would be “dangerously premature.”