descent
Contributor
... There is the letter of the law and then there is the spirit of the law. I'm pretty sure that gently and non-aggressively reclaiming your float from the otter, and if you want, heck, even do it when nobody is looking, I'm sure it would be a non event.
Maybe.
It might be a non-event if the otter was a well-rested adult male with no fights scheduled. Losing territory to bigger animals is still a setback, even for strong males with no responsibilities other than their appetite. Ideally, we would prefer that they not view every human as a territorial threat.
Wet, soaked, flattened sea otter fur is a little like a flooded drysuit. Their fur is not waterproof, and needs repeated fluffing up to trap air bubbles to provide thermal protection.
Tipping a tired adult into the cold ocean places additional stress on the animal. Can you tell if the otter is run down and getting hypothermic, or just lounging around and watching the sea gulls follow the fishing boats? Can you tell if the otter is a pregnant female? Can you tell if the otter is a mother that may be hunting to feed herself and a pup hidden in nearby kelp?
A female sea otter needs someplace safe to stash her pup while she hunts. Younger sea otter pups are as helpless as human newborns. They cannot feed or protect themselves, or even swim. The mother sometimes cannot catch enough food to keep herself and her pup alive.
Sometimes the pups are stashed on dry, stable floating surfaces. As you look up from the surface, can you tell an adult from a pup? How about a dependent juvenile?
Tipping a pup into the water without the mother nearby for protection could result in death of the pup by predation, starvation (due to separation) or hypothermia.
When their preferred diet is disrupted, abandonment and separation increase. Warmer eaters in an El Niño year reduce kelp, which eliminates food for sea urchins and removes shelter, exposing the animals to predation. Sometimes the mother dies of exhaustion and malnutrition while trying to raise a hungry pup. Sometimes a shark eats the mother. The separated pup cries in distress until cold or hunger take it, or until someone hears and paddles out to help.
For some reason, first year pup mortality in California approaches 75%. Lately, even the rescue volunteers are tired from a glut of beached marine mammals.
The issue is not simple. The law provides stiff penalties, many of which seem reasonable to me given the tiny populations of sea otters in the lower 48.
I wish there was a simple explanation, or an easy answer. We have neither.
Best regards and well wishes from sunny California.