As expected, the many sea otter support groups vying to be part of the federal case that seeks to keep the controversial “no otter zone” intact south of Point Conception were granted “intervenor” status by the court last week. Both the Santa Barbara-based EDC and The Otter Project were granted that status because they had brought the lawsuit that forced the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to move forward with declaring the quarter-century-old otter translocation program a failure and ending it for good at the end of last year. The other groups, Friends of the Sea Otter, the Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, and Los Angeles Waterkeeper, were allowed to join the case by the judge’s discretion.
