ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - An unbudging sheath of sea ice has blocked off the waters where the Alaska Peninsula's sea otters forage, forcing the starving animals inland on a search for food and making them easy prey for wolves and humans.

Some otters have waddled or slid on their bellies for several miles onto the tundra near Port Heiden where they have been attacked by dogs, killed for their pelts, or died of malnourishment.

No one knows how many have come ashore, said village fire chief Mark Kosbruk. Local Alaska Natives have skinned at least 17 to make hats, gloves and blankets from the luxurious hides, he said.

Once forced onto land, the sea otters' chances of survival fall sharply. They travel awkwardly and slowly, pulling with front paws while dragging flipperlike hind feet.

The sea otters are part of Alaska's western population, which ranges from the Aleutian Islands to Cook Inlet. They are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, with numbers dropping more than 50 percent in the last 20 years to about 48,000 animals, according to estimates by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act allows Alaska Natives to kill them for food or handicrafts, otherwise the 1972 law forbids hunting or harassing the animals.

Federal biologists said similar die-offs have occurred before and they are not quite sure whether they should intervene.

“We're concerned about large concentrations of sea otters that might get trapped and not have a way into the water,” said Douglas Burn, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service's sea otter program in Alaska. “The hard part is, what would we do if we found that? We'd have to ask what are our options.”

Kosbruk said he feels bad for the starving animals, but is glad Alutiiq hunting traditions, like sharing the meat and hides with elders, are being preserved in Port Heiden. The Alutiiq village of 79 is located about 400 miles southwest of Anchorage.

“We don't hunt for ourselves,” Kosbruk said. “We hunt for people who can no longer hunt for themselves.”

Andrew Lind, a 27-year-old commercial fisherman who moved to Port Heiden a few years ago, killed his first sea otter and four others last month.

Lind is giving all of them away, most to elders. He gave the first to his mother and the next to his grandmother who was planning to make fur hats for children and grandchildren.

“She was very happy and thankful,” he said.

Sea otters dive for several minutes at a time to feed on clams or sea urchins living on the ocean floor and normally eat the equivalent of 25 percent of their body weight daily.

Die-offs normally happen at the edges of the animals' natural range, Burn said.

The Port Heiden population lives farther north than other Bristol Bay sea otters, and similar freeze-outs have been documented since the early 1970s.