The present California Sea Otter population came from from a group of around 50 sea otters that lived together along the Big Sur coastline. In 1915, 32 of the 50 sea otters were spotted near the coastline.  The few people who already knew about the otters kept them a secret.  In 1938, after the opening of the new highway from Monterey to San Simeon, the public then was able to see the only remaining group of sea otters living along the California coastline.

Starting from the late 1930s to the mid 1970’s the population of the California Sea Otters began to increase slowly. This slow increase stopped short after the 70’s, and then went down in the early 80’s. Biologists suspected that otters declined by being drowned by fishing nets.  Because of the many drownings, in January 1988, an emergency closure stopped  the use of fishing nets near the coastline of Monterey to the Santa Maria Rivers.  Since the banning of the fishing nets in the sea otter habitats’, scientists and ocean biologist have observed that the sea otter population is again slowly rising.