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 Bodies of four male sea otters, a federally protected animal whose killing can be punishable with jail time, washed up on beaches over course of eight days 
 
 Federal and state officials are investigating the shooting deaths of California sea otters, after the bodies of four male otters were found washed up on beaches near Santa Cruz. On Monday, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for killing three sea otters that were found between 12-19 August. A fourth otter carcass was discovered on 20 August with a suspected gunshot wound, Ashley Spratt of the Fish and Wildlife Service said on Wednesday. Killing a sea otter is punishable by fines up to $100,000 and could result in a jail sentence. Sea otters were once widespread along the Pacific coast, but the mammals were hunted almost to extinction for their pelts during the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1977, California’s remaining sea otters were listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
– Before being hunted to near extinction for their pelts in the 18th and 19th centuries, sea otters littered the Pacific coast. Today the biggest threats to the 3,000 that remain are oil spills and tankers, reports the Guardian, and now a shooter on the loose near Santa Cruz, Calif. Authorities have found in just a matter of days four male sea otters washed ashore, though the fourth body was so deteriorated it's not yet been determined whether it was also shot, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The endangered furry marine mammals are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, California state law, and the Endangered Species Act, and the killer could face fines up to $100,000 and jail time. "Finding several gunshot sea otters at the same general location during such a short time frame is very unusual," says a Fish and Wildlife Service rep. "They’re a keystone species.... With the loss of these sea otters, we also have the loss of their benefit to the ecosystem." Almost exactly three years ago, three sea otters were found dead near Asilomar state beach in Pacific Grove, Calif., in what the FWS rep says is now considered a "cold case." The recently found otter carcasses are undergoing necropsies at a FWS lab in Oregon. (One famous sea otter who survived an oil spill was ultimately nabbed by another ocean dweller.)