Annual California Sea Otter Census: 2017 Extra Limit Observations Shapefile

The GIS shapefile "Extra limit counts of southern sea otters 2017" is a point layer representing the locations of sea otter sightings that fall outside the officially recognized range of the southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) in mainland California. These data were collected during the spring 2017 range-wide census. The USGS range-wide sea otter census has been undertaken twice a year since 1982, once in May and once in October, using consistent methodology involving both ground-based and aerial-based counts. The spring census is considered more accurate than the fall count, and provides the primary basis for gauging population trends by State and Federal management agencies. Sea otter distribution in California (the mainland range) is considered to comprise a band of potential habitat stretching along the coast of California, and bounded to the north and south by range limits defined as "the points farthest from the range center at which 5 or more otters are counted within a 10km contiguous stretch of coastline (as measured along the 10m bathymetric contour) during the two most recent spring censuses, or at which these same criteria were met in the previous year". However, a few individual sea otters (almost always males) can frequently be found outside this officially recognized range, and these "extra-limital" animals are also counted during the census.