Bay Area Headlines

California joins suit opposing Trump administration proposed changes on endangered species

KALW | By CapRadio

Published September 14, 2026 at 3:02 PM PDT

Mother sea otter with rare twin baby pups, presumed to have been born just one or two days earlier on June 23-24, 2013. Photo taken 24 June 2013, Morro Bay, CA. AKA Southern sea otter and California sea otter, Subspecies E. l. nereis, Coast of Central California.

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_otter says “Birth usually takes place in the water and typically produces a single pup weighing 1.4 to 2.3 kg (3 to 5 lb). Twins occur in 2% of births; however, usually only one pup survives. At birth, the eyes are open, ten teeth are visible, and the pup has a thick coat of baby fur. Mothers have been observed to lick and fluff a newborn for hours; after grooming, the pup's fur retains so much air, the pup floats like a cork and cannot dive. The fluffy baby fur is replaced by adult fur after about 13 weeks.”

http://animals.pawnation.com/lifespan-marine-otter-1756.html says “Female sea otters give birth to their pups under water. In most cases only one pup is born; rarely, a female sea otter gives birth to twins. Because a mother otter cannot care for two pups, one of the twins will die. For the first couple months of an otter pup’s life, he lives on his mother’s belly. She protects the pup from predators, grooms him and feeds him. Male otters do not assist in care of the young.”

http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=157 says “Typically, there is only one pup per pregnancy. On the rare occasion of twins, the mother can only raise one. Her food requirements are large, and so are the pups. The mother would have a hard time getting enough food for two additional mouths. Unlike the river otter, the sea otter mother is the pup's cradle, protection, and home for the first months of its life. The mother would only have room for one pup.”

Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris), from a raft of about 25, Mostly Females, many being Moms with their pups (often plopped on their Mom’s tummy), near Target Rock in the Morro Bay Harbor, where the Sea Otters almost always — Mother sea otter with rare twin baby pups, presumed to have been born just in 2013. The otters are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

California is going to court to block the Trump administration's changes to the Endangered Species Act.

The 50-year-old law, enacted under President Richard Nixon, is credited with helping bring California’s condors and sea otters back from the brink of extinction.

The updates to the law still ban directly harming or killing individual animals but eliminate protections for the habitats where endangered species live.

Now there’s concern that shift could effectively open up habitats to mining, logging, and other development.

Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of 20 other AGs called the changes to the act a “reversal of staggering proportions” in a legal complaint filed last week.

In a press release about the shifts, Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the updates would “ensure legitimate conservation goals are met without sacrificing economic growth and American prosperity.”