From Washington To You
A sea otter floating in Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary waters.
Photograph by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Public domain.

From Washington to you

Olympic Coast Sea Otters

Olympic Coast · Jefferson County · reintroduced 1969–1970

Washington's sea otters were gone by the early 1900s. FWS says 59 animals from Amchitka Island were released on the Olympic Coast in 1969 and 1970.

Northern sea otters, Enhydra lutris kenyoni, once ranged from the Columbia River north along the Olympic Peninsula. FWS says Washington's population was extirpated by the early 1900s. In 1969 and 1970, a total of 59 sea otters were captured at Amchitka Island, Alaska, and released on the outer Olympic Coast — 29 near Point Grenville in 1969 and 30 near La Push in 1970.

FWS manages the Washington stock under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. NOAA lists the northern sea otter as a key species of Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Sanctuary and FWS partners have surveyed the population for decades.

The photograph is a NOAA sanctuary image of a sea otter, not a count of today's animals. The sources below are the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stock assessment and the sanctuary page.

  • Wildlife & Ecology

Sources (2)

Last reviewed: September 20, 2026

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