<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>B.B. Hatfield</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>K. Ralls</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>J. Ames</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>J. A. Estes</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2003</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Elevated&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;mortality&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;appears to be the main reason for both sluggish&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;growth&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;periods&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;decline&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;in&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;the threatened&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;California&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;sea&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;otter&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;population&lt;span&gt;. We assessed&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;causes&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;mortality&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;from salvage records of 3,105 beach-cast carcasses recovered from 1968 through 1999, contrasting two&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;periods&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;growth&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;with two&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;periods&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;decline&lt;span&gt;. Overall, an estimated 40%-60% of the deaths were not recovered and 70% of the recovered carcasses died from unknown&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;causes&lt;span&gt;. Nonetheless, several common patterns were evident&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;in&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;the salvage records during the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;periods&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;population&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;decline&lt;span&gt;. These included greater percentages of (1) prime age animals (3-10 yr), (2) carcasses killed by great white shark attacks, (3) carcasses recovered&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;in&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;spring and summer, and (4) carcasses for which the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;cause&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;of death was unknown. Neither sex composition nor the proportion of carcasses dying of infectious disease varied consistently between&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;periods&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;population&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;increase and&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;decline&lt;span&gt;. The&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;population&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;decline&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;from 1976 to 1984 was likely due to incidental&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;mortality&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;in&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;a set-net fishery, and the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;decline&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;from 1995 to 1999 may be related to a developing live-fish fishery. Long-term trends unrelated to&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;periods&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;growth&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;decline&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;included a decrease&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;in&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;per capita pup production and mass/length ratios of adult carcasses over the 31-yr study. The generally high proportion of deaths from infectious disease suggests that this factor has contributed to the chronically sluggish&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;growth&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;rate of the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;California&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;sea&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;otter&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;population&lt;span&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.1111/j.1748-7692.2003.tb01102.x</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Wiley</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Causes of mortality in California sea otters during periods of population growth and decline</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>