Rescued Sea Otter Moves to Monterey Bay Aquarium

Last October, a female baby otter was seen stranded on Kachemak Drive, Homer Spit at the tip of Kenai Peninsula. The Alaska SeaLife Center had then shifted the sea otter pup to the I.Sea.U critical care unit, before shifting it to the Vancouver Aquarium. The Homer Stranding Network, a group of ASLC volunteers who are trained to assist with this type of situation, went to hunt down the mother, but were unsuccessful.

The good news is that the female pup is officially being shifted to the Vancouver Aquarium after thousands of hours of rehabilitative care. A team from Vancouver Aquarium spent more than 2,000 hours working with Alaska SeaLife Center in rehabilitation and critical care of the orphaned pup.

When she was eight weeks old, she was deemed non-releasable by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, due to the lack of maternal care to survive in the wild.

Initially when found, she was six to eight weeks old, weighing just eight pounds, but after all the rehabilitative care, she now weighs 15 kilograms and is recovering well.

"We've already established a special bond with her and are so pleased to welcome her to her new home at the Aquarium," Rian Sheehan, curator of marine mammals, said in a news release

The sea otter that has been adjusting to her new home will soon encounter 'Tanu', one of the sea otters at the Aquarium. They hope that Tanu will help the rescued otter adjust to the new surroundings. The aquarium also has a male otter named Elfin. Tanu and Elfin were rescued and transferred to the aquarium.

The officials haven't yet named the otter pup and ask you to cast your vote via Twitter, picking out one of the given suggestions from students in Alaska - Susitna, Katmai, or Glacier.