Sea otter abundance, distribution, and pup production in Prince William Sound following the Exxon Valdez oil spill

Johnson, C B; Garshelis, D L

Title: Sea otter abundance, distribution, and pup production in Prince William Sound following the Exxon Valdez oil spill

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

The authors investigated effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill on the abundance, distribution, and pup production of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) in prince William Sound (PWS) by comparing counts made during 1990 and 1991 with counts made by researchers 5--12 years before the spill. The authors observed no evidence of avoidance or attraction to spill-affected shorelines 1--2 years after the spill. Despite a substantial loss of sea otters immediately following the spill, the authors counted fewer otters than prespill investigators at only one of three heavily oiled islands, and from 1990 to 1991 the counts at this one site increased to a level equivalent to the latest (1985) prespill count. The authors followed the methods of prespill investigators and found close agreement between the counts of otters and those of two other concurrent investigations using the same survey technique. This agreement among counts, and the involvement in counts made prespill, suggested that inter-observer variability could not explain the unexpected high counts at oiled sites. 52 refs., 18 figs., 5 tabs.

Authors:

Johnson, C B ^[1]; Garshelis, D L ^[2]

ABR, Inc., Fairbanks, AK (United States)
Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources, Grand Rapids, MN (United States)

Publication Date:: Sun Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI Identifier:: 382777

Report Number(s):: CONF-930442-
ISBN 0-8031-1896-1; TRN: 96:025736

Resource Type:: Conference

Resource Relation:: Conference: 3. symposium on environmental toxicology and risk assessment, Atlanta, GA (United States), 25-28 Apr 1993; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Exxon Valdez oil spill: Fate and effects in Alaskan waters; Wells, P.G.; Butler, J.N.; Hughes, J.S. [eds.]; PB: 961 p.; ASTM special technical publication, 1219

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 02 PETROLEUM; 56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE, APPLIED STUDIES; GULF OF ALASKA; OIL SPILLS; OTTERS; BIOLOGICAL STRESS; PETROLEUM; TOXICITY; WATER POLLUTION; AQUATIC ORGANISMS; POPULATION DYNAMICS

Citation Formats


                    Johnson, C B, and Garshelis, D L. Sea otter abundance, distribution, and pup production in Prince William Sound following the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  United States: N. p., 1995. 
        Web.

Copy to clipboard


                    Johnson, C B, & Garshelis, D L. Sea otter abundance, distribution, and pup production in Prince William Sound following the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  United States.

Copy to clipboard


                    Johnson, C B, and Garshelis, D L. 1995.  
        "Sea otter abundance, distribution, and pup production in Prince William Sound following the Exxon Valdez oil spill".  United States.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_382777,

  title        = {Sea otter abundance, distribution, and pup production in Prince William Sound following the Exxon Valdez oil spill},

  author       = {Johnson, C B and Garshelis, D L},

  abstractNote = {The authors investigated effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill on the abundance, distribution, and pup production of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) in prince William Sound (PWS) by comparing counts made during 1990 and 1991 with counts made by researchers 5--12 years before the spill. The authors observed no evidence of avoidance or attraction to spill-affected shorelines 1--2 years after the spill. Despite a substantial loss of sea otters immediately following the spill, the authors counted fewer otters than prespill investigators at only one of three heavily oiled islands, and from 1990 to 1991 the counts at this one site increased to a level equivalent to the latest (1985) prespill count. The authors followed the methods of prespill investigators and found close agreement between the counts of otters and those of two other concurrent investigations using the same survey technique. This agreement among counts, and the involvement in counts made prespill, suggested that inter-observer variability could not explain the unexpected high counts at oiled sites. 52 refs., 18 figs., 5 tabs.},

  doi          = {},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/382777},
  journal      = {},
number       = ,

  volume       = ,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Sun Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1995},

  month        = {Sun Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1995}

}

Copy to clipboard

Conference:

Other availability

Please see Document Availability for additional information on obtaining the full-text document. Library patrons may search WorldCat to identify libraries that hold this conference proceeding.

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar records in OSTI.GOV collections:

Age distributions of sea otters found dead in Prince William Sound, Alaska, following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Marine mammal study 6-15. Exxon Valdez oil spill state/federal natural resource damage assessment final report

Technical Report Monson, D; Ballachey, B

Age distribution of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) found dead on beaches in western Prince William Sound Alaska, from 1976 to 1984, were compared to those of sea otters found dead from 1989 to 1993, following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The age distribution of sea otters recovered in western Prince William Sound prior to the spill was bimodal and composed of primarily young and old animals. The high proportion of prime-age otters recovered immediately following the spill indicates significant losses occurred within a segment of the population which normally experiences very low mortality. The high proportion of prime-age otters recoveredmore »« less
Experiments to determine drift patterns and rates of recovery of sea otter carcasses following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Marine mammal study 6-9. Exxon Valdez oil spill state/federal natural resource damage assessment final report

Technical Report Doroff, A; DeGange, A

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate efforts to recover sea otter (Enhydra lutris) carcasses following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The first study was implemented during sea otter rescue and carcass recovery activities to assess the probability of carcass recovery. Twenty-five previously recovered sea otter carcasses were marked with flipper tags and released near northern Kodiak Island between 27 May and 3 June 1989. Five were recovered, for a recovery rate of 20%. In the second study, 30 radio-monitored floats designed to assess drift characteristics of floating sea otter carcasses were deployed in early summer 1990. During a 43-day monitoringmore »« less
Population model for sea otters in western Prince William sound. Restoration project 93043-3. Sea otter demographics. Exxon Valdez oil spill restoration project final report

Technical Report Udevitz, M; Ballachey, B; Bruden, D

A large portion of the western Prince William Sound (PWS) sea otter population was killed by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in March 1989, but little is known about the dynamics of the population before the spill in March 1989, or the rate at which the population can be expected to recover. We estimated age-specific reproductive and survival rates for the western PWS population before the spill based on examinations or reproductive tracts and the age structure of carcasses collected in 1989. We developed a new technique for estimating survival rates that uses age-structure and age-at-death data, and does notmore »« less
Technical report: Marine mammals study number 6. Movements of weanling and adult female sea otters in Prince William Sound, Alaska, after the t/v Exxon Valdez oil spill. Marine mammal study 6-12. Exxon Valdez oil spill state/federal natural resource damage assessment final report

Technical Report Monnett, C; Rotterman, L

Ninety-six adult female sea otters and 64 weanling sea otters were instrumented with implanted radio-transmitters in Prince William Sound during 1989-1990 and monitored until November, 1991. Observations of the movements of adult female and weanling sea otters in prince William Sound indicated no tendency for individuals to emigrate from, or immigrate to, the area affected by oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez. This finding indicates that the study groups of sea otters categorized as `western Prince William Sound oil-spill treatment` otters and `eastern Prince William Sound control` otters are indeed distinct groups of individuals. No tendency was observed for recentlymore »« less
Detection of sea otters in boat-based surveys of Prince William Sound, Alaska. Marine mammal study 6-19. Exxon Valdez oil spill state/federal natural resource damage assessment final report

Technical Report Udevitz, M; Bodkin, J; Costa, D

Boat-based surveys were used to monitor the Prince William Sound sea otter population before and after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Population and loss estimates could be obtained from these surveys by direct expansion from the counts in the surveyed transects under the assumption that all otters in those transects were observed. The authors conducted a pilot study using ground-based observers in conjunction with the August 1990 survey of marine mammals and birds to investigate the validity of this assumption. The proportion of otters detected by boat crews was estimated by comparing boat and ground-based observations on 22 segments ofmore »« less

Similar Records