SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Greg Sanders' otter-catching days are over. It's been years since he last snatched the animals from Southern California waters and shipped them north under an ambitious federal program to preserve an endangered species while protecting shellfish divers from natural competition. Now, in an admission that the slick-furred creatures refuse to respect boundaries imposed by man, the federal government wants officially to abandon an otter-relocation policy it effectively dumped more than a decade ago. If the government's battle of wits is at its end, the otters have won. "This concept of taking animals and putting them in...