Sea otters are cute, curious, and critical to ocean health

Our surrogacy program is the first of its kind—a pioneering approach to rescuing, rearing, and returning sea otter pups to the wild, with our non-releasable exhibit otters serving as surrogate mothers.

Studies done by the Monterey Bay Aquarium staff underscore our leadership in sea otter conservation and provide key data in support of sea otter reintroduction. Our studies also show that our surrogate-raised otters and their wild progeny account for more than half of Elkhorn Slough’s otter population growth due to the release of otters there between 2002-2016.

What’s more, surrogate-reared otters are surviving at rates comparable to their wild-raised kin and are staying put in the slough, where they contribute to its ecological recovery. The success of those individual otters had both a population-level and ecosystem-level impact. This is a positive finding in the discussion around returning southern sea otters to more of their historical range. 

The remarkable success of our surrogacy program highlights a tremendous opportunity for us—to help sea otters contribute to the revival of other coastal estuaries along the California coast.

Otter rescue, rehabilitation and research

Each year, we must raise over $2 million to make possible our rescue, rehabilitation, and research work, and we thank each of you who contributed to our recent campaign to fund this critical work.

We can be dedicated to sea otters because of your dedication to us. With your generous support, we can use what we’ve learned about sea otter care and surrogacy to build their numbers and strengthen the health of California’s essential coastal habitats, as the two are inextricably linked. It’s more critical than ever to build resilience along our coast at a time of rapid global change.

We’re excited about what we’ve learned—and even more excited about what this will mean for sea otters in the years ahead. There is a lot to celebrate, but still much more to do—together. Thank you.