Meet the New Kids!

The Aquarium of Pacific has announced the arrival to the LBC* of three young sea otters, Elle, Bee, and Cee! Let’s introduce you!

The aquarium writes, “Elle was found stranded as a ten-day-old pup at Marina State Beach in June 2022.”

“In January 2023, Bee was found stranded as a three-week-old pup at Morro Strand Campground.”

“Cee was found stranded as a five-day-old pup at Carmel Beach in January 2023.”

The aquarium continues:

After Elle’s rescue, she was taken to Monterey Bay Aquarium where staff attempted to pair her with a surrogate mother in the hopes of one day returning her to the wild. However, this pairing was ultimately not successful as the two did not bond, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deemed Elle non-releasable. For both Bee and Cee, at the time of their strandings, there were no available surrogate sea otter mothers. Therefore, they were also deemed non-releasable.

“For the past two years, we have been temporarily housing young sea otters with the goal of freeing up space in the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Otter Surrogacy Program so more sea otter pups have a chance to return to the wild,” said Brett Long, senior director of birds and mammals, Aquarium of the Pacific. Through this partnership, the Aquarium of the Pacific has been building a new area to serve as an additional location where adult female sea otters can serve as surrogate mothers to stranded sea otter pups with the goal of release back to the ocean.

Welcome to the fam, little ones!

*The Aquarium of the Pacific is located in Long Beach, CA.