Slowly swimming towards recovery, california's sea otter numbers holding steady posted on september 22, 2014 usgs. gov "for an animal so few in number, sea otter population trends can be influenced by many local and range-wide factors," says biologist tim tinker with the usgs western ecological research center, who leads california sea otter research with co-investigators from the california department of fish and wildlife's office of spill prevention and response, the monterey bay aquarium, university of california, santa cruz, and other institutions. "we are seeing elevated mortality suggestive of food resource limitation in some parts of the range, and increasing mortality from white shark attacks in others. which word correctly conveys the tone of this section of the article? concerned hopeful confused confident