September 20, 2006

VANCOUVER AQUARIUM CELEBRATES

SEA OTTER AWARENESS WEEK

Vancouver, BC: The Vancouver Aquarium kicked off international Sea Otter Awareness Week yesterday, which takes place from September 23-30 and will be celebrated at the Aquarium with special otter crafts, activities and family programs, in addition to our regularly scheduled otter feeds. For an extra fee, Aquarium visitors can also get up close with the sea otters during a trainer tour, where they’ll get to train and feed the otters.

The Vancouver Aquarium has four sea otters. Nyac, 18, is one of the last survivors of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, while two-year-old Tanu and five-year old Elfin were orphaned as young pups off the coast of Alaska and hand raised here at the Aquarium. Seven-year-old Milo is here on loan from the Lisbon Oceanarium.

Sea Otter Awareness Week began three 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. 

The sea otter population in B.C. is classified as ‘threatened’. 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 are habitat for a number of fish species.

Sea Otter Fact Sheet

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For further information, please contact:

Brenda Jones

Manager, Public Relations

publicrelations@vanaqua.org