The Vancouver Aquarium celebrates international Sea Otter Awareness Week, which takes place from September 20-27 and will be celebrated at the Aquarium with special discovery stations, activities and family programs, in addition to regularly scheduled otter feeds.
Until Tuesday, September 23, the Vancouver Aquarium was home to four sea otters. Sadly, in the early hours of September 23rd, 20 year old Nyac - one of the last remaining survivors of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill - passed away after an earlier diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
The passing of Nyac has placed a profound and lasting sadness upon those who cared for her during her time here at the Vancouver Aquarium. The fact that her passing occurred during Sea Otter Awareness Week further amplifies the importance of her long life and how it will continue to provide education on her species and its environment. Her legacy shows us the vital importance of continued conservation work to help protect the future of this species.
The three remaining sea otters include Tanu (a 4 year old female) and Elfin (a 7 year old male), both orphaned as young pups off the coast of Alaska and hand raised here at the Aquarium. Also, Milo (a 9 year old male) is here on loan from the Lisbon Oceanarium.
Sea Otter Awareness Week began five years ago to educate the public about sea otters, their history and the conservation issues they are facing. Sea otters numbered in the hundreds of thousands two and a half centuries ago, but over-hunting in the 18th century nearly led to their extinction. Today, there are between 65,000 and 90,000 sea otters worldwide. Once extinct in British Columbia, 89 sea otters were reintroduced here between 1969 and 1972 and since then that number has grown substantially, now totalling 3,200.
In April 2007, the sea otter population in B.C. was downlisted from ‘threatened’ to ‘a species of special concern’. Sea otters are considered a ‘keystone’ species, a term that refers to their function within an ecosystem. They eat shellfish, preventing the destruction of kelp beds, which provide habitat for a number of fish species.
Events will run daily and be posted in the daily events board.