Monterey Bay Aquarium

Early Days

How Monterey Bay Aquarium was Founded

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has been caring for Southern Sea Otters since before they even opened as an aquarium. In 1981, a concerned citizen brought their inexperienced 9-member staff an orphaned male sea otter pup, who sadly died.

With a renewed determination to make sure that wouldn't happen again, MBA joined the Southern Sea Otter Recovery Team in 1982 — a team created by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service to research and protect the struggling Southern Sea Otter population.

Read more about the history of MBA's Sea Otter Program.

Surrogacy Program

History of the Sea Otter Surrogacy Program

In 2001, Monterey Bay Aquarium began their Sea Otter Surrogacy Program with Otter 217, a two-week-old male pup, and Toola, a female otter at the aquarium who has just given birth to a stillborn pup. Toola immediately adopted and raised Otter 217 as her own, and within 4 days of his release back into the wild, he was seen foraging with other otters in Elkhorn Slough, an otter habitat near Monterey Bay. The success of Toola and Otter 217 lead the way for otters like Rosa and Selka to do the same.

A new Discovery

Monterey Bay Aquarium's Research Programs

Helping sea otters is not the only thing Monterey Bay Aquarium does — sometimes they also discover new species! In 2004, scientists working at MBA discovered two new species of tube worms that feed on whale carcasses (known as "whale falls"). These Bone-Eating Worms (genus Osedax, latin for "bone devourer") secrete acid to dissolve the connective tissue and fats in whale bones, from which point symbiotic bacteria digest the dissolved bone, providing a source of food for the worm.