Unalaska, AK – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially designated 5,855 square miles as critical habitat for southwest Alaska sea otters on Wednesday. The areas span from the end of the Aleutians to the Alaska Peninsula and mostly include near-shore areas that are less than 20 meters deep and kelp beds. U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Bruce Woods said the designation only affects federal activities in the area.

"Well, a critical habitat designation means that any federal agencies that either undertake, fund, or permit activities in that area are required to consult with the Service to make sure that those activities don't either adversely modify or destroy the designated critical habitat," he explained.

That means the designation should not affect any commercial, subsistence, or sport fishing. Activities that might cause major environmental changes, like dredging or drilling for oil and gas, would have to be reviewed by the service before being approved.

"It would prevent the areas from being destroyed by future uses that we don't yet know of," Woods said.

The critical habitat designation is required under the Endangered Species Act because Alaska's southwestern population of sea otters is considered "threatened." Their population declined from 100,000 in the 1970s to less than 40,000 now. In the Aleutians, the population is less than 10,000. Woods said protecting the habitat is one step towards protecting the population.

"We tried to determine areas that had everything that sea otters needed to live but also were areas that would allow sea otters to escape from predators, since one of the theories about the decline of the sea otter population is that it resulted from increased predation by killer whales. And these are nearshore areas where killer whales are less likely to be. It gives the otters an area where they can go to escape."

Woods said it's too soon to say if this will be enough to help rebuild the population.

The area for the critical habitat designation was selected last year and put up for public comment after the Service came to an agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity. The Center sued Fish & Wildlife to get the otters listed as threatened in 2005. When the government did not designate any critical habitat, the Center sued them again in 2006.

"The most important thing that a species needs to survive is its habitat," said Rebecca Noblin, a staff attorney with the Center in Anchorage. "So when the government refused to designate critical habitat we went ahead and sued to make sure that that, a requirement of the Endangered Species Act, was carried through."

The organization wanted more areas to be designated but said this is a good start to protecting the species. They are also concerned about the potential impacts of oil and gas drilling in the North Aleutian Basin on the threatened otter populations. A five-year lease plan for the area is currently under consideration by the Minerals Management Service.