For the second time in our history, we have a young sea otter pup on exhibit.
She arrived here just 12 weeks old, weighing half of what a pup her age should weigh and suffering from a serious medical condition. Now, at 19 weeks, she's responding well to her new environment and medical treatment.
She and her surrogate "mom," 13-year-old Joy, are helping visitors understand the many threats sea otters face in the wild. This month, the annual sea otter census showed a continuing downward trend in the California population. High mortality of breeding-age females is an ongoing problem—and this was the lowest pup count in almost two decades.
As the only facility to care for sick and abandoned California sea otters, we've had one of our busiest seasons ever responding to pup strandings. In just the past few days, we've rescued two more pups whose mothers were victims of great white sharks.
Caring for orphaned pups includes having our exhibit animals serve as surrogate mothers, which has dramatically increased our success rate in releasing stranded pups back to the wild. Kit, the first otter pup ever to go on exhibit, is behind-the-scenes at "Otter U" learning to become a companion to other stranded sea otters. We'll tell Kit's story and feature new videos of her this September in a special e-mail series—stay tuned!
In the meantime, watch our new sea otter pup during her
first day on exhibit with Joy.
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White Sharks in the Wild
Our field work with juvenile great white sharks continues for the 9th consecutive summer, using new tags that will tell us more about where they're traveling. Tagging and tracking young animals in southern California and Mexico is a critical part of our research to understand—and protect—these amazing animals from the many threats they face in the wild.
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Goodbye Outer Bay-Hello Open Sea Experience
On August 30, we'll close some of our Outer Bay exhibits and begin their transformation into our new Open Sea experience with the grand opening in July 2011.
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 BLUE Ocean Film Festival
The BLUE Ocean Film Festival is coming to Monterey next week, with fantastic films, exhibits and programs. We’re excited to be the presenting sponsor. Aquarium members enjoy special rates on screenings and special events.
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