Sea otters swim in the harbor at Monterey. About 2,500 of the animals live along the Central Coast. After recent research identified a parasite in cat feces as a primary killer of sea otters, Democratic Assemblymen Dave Jones of Sacramento and John Laird of Santa Cruz introduced a bill warning against flushing cat litter. Sacramento Bee file, 2005/Brian Baer

By John Hill -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 3:15 am PDT Sunday, April 2, 2006

Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, was visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium last summer when he and his family learned that the threatened California sea otter population is not thriving, despite measures to protect it.

His 5-year-old son Will started to cry.

"Dad, you've got to do something about the sea otters," Jones recalls his son saying. "They're dying here."

Jones made inquiries at the aquarium and eventually talked to one of the sea otter experts.

What he learned led him to join with Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, to introduce a bill that would take several steps to help bring back California's sea otter population.

It once numbered about 15,000, but hunting in the 1700s brought sea otters to the brink of extinction. Now, about 2,500 otters live along the California coast. But an unusual number of adults in their prime breeding years have been dying, said D'Anne Albers, executive director of the nonprofit Friends of the Sea Otter in Pacific Grove.

"They're not thriving as they should be," Albers said.

To those unfamiliar with the challenges faced by sea otters, perhaps the most curious provision in Jones' Assembly Bill 2485 is a requirement that cat litter sold in California contain a statement to discourage flushing the litter down the toilet.

Recent research has shown that a parasite in cat feces is one of the primary killers of sea otters. The parasite, toxoplasma gondii, may find its way to the ocean - and to sea otters - when cat feces are flushed.

Between 1998 and 2004, 52 percent of dead sea otters found on the beach and 38 percent of live sea otters along the California coast were infected by the parasite, according to a paper published last year in the International Journal for Parasitology. In 17 percent of dead otters examined by the state Department of Fish and Game, the parasite was the primary cause of death.

The solution is not simple.

The parasite's egg-like stage is extremely tough and may survive sewage treatment plants, said Patricia Conrad, a professor of parasitology at the Wildlife Health Center at UC Davis. When treated sewage gets to the ocean, the parasite still could be in it.

But sewage is not the only route. Feral cats and even cats whose owners let them live outdoors are also likely contributors to the problem when their feces wash into the ocean in storm drainage or surface water.

In addition, the type of cat litter that can be flushed down the toilet is a very small percentage of the $1.7 billion market, said Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, a trade group in Connecticut.

Flushable cat litter made of crystals, introduced four or five years ago, has not really taken off. Less expensive, traditional clay litter still represents more than 90 percent of the market, Vetere said. That has to be thrown away with the trash, because flushing it down the toilet will clog the pipes.

"It's one of those things that sound nice but I don't know that it will make a whole lot of impact," Vetere said of the Jones bill.

But sea otter advocates applaud the legislator for bringing attention to the parasite and its role in sea otter mortality.

And the bill takes several other steps to protect sea otters. It would increase the fines and penalties for killing sea otters to encourage local law enforcement agencies to prosecute the crime, Jones said.

It would add a box to the state tax return for people to check if they wanted to contribute to a state sea otter fund. That money would go to hiring a full-time warden and further research on sea otters.

Taxpayers currently can donate to 14 special funds, from Alzheimer's disease to military family relief. Last year, the voluntary contribution section of the tax form generated from $55,524 for the California Seniors Special Fund to $636,319 for breast cancer research.

Jones hopes his colleagues will see fit to add another box, and that taxpayers will open their wallets.

"The numbers are so low, the population is at a critical point," he said. The otter population "really is a coastal treasure."

The Bee's John Hill can be reached at (916) 326-5543 or jhill@sacbee.com. Bee Political Editor Amy Chance contributed to this report.