Between 20192022 on average 340 deceased sick injured or orphaned sea otters stranded in california annually

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded a $208,426 Project Grant under the Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance program (CFDA 15.683) to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation to provide essential response, rehabilitation, and conservation services for the southern sea otter population in California. Key objectives include:

1. Coordinating with stranding network partners to handle approximately 150 sea otter stranding reports annually.
2. Collecting and reporting data on approximately 50 deceased sea otters.
3. Providing critical care and surrogate-raising for up to 5 rescued sea otter pups over one year.
4. Generating scientific data to inform management and recovery plans for the threatened southern sea otter population.

The grant funding supports the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation's specialized expertise in marine mammal rehabilitation, research, and public education to support the long-term recovery of the southern sea otter in central California.

Responding to and documenting both live and dead strandings throughout the sea otters range and then rehabilitating stranded otters and returning them back to the wild are critical activities proven to support the southern sea otter population. This population remains threatened limited in range and vulnerable to shark bite mortality disease and habitat changes. Gathering knowledge from strandings and providing humane care to livestranded otters before rehabilitating including surrogaterearing orphaned wild pups and releasing them back to the wild is essential to the larger sea otter management and recovery plans and helps US identify emerging threats to the recovery of the population. Support from the US fish and wildlife service will allow the monterey BAY aquarium to a provide direct response to southern sea otter strandings and b surrogaterear orphaned pups for release within their range in central california. Our objectives include:1. Coordinate with stranding network partners to handle approximately 150 sea otter stranding reports for live and deceased southern sea otters.2. Collect approximately 50 deceased sea otters and report preliminary data to cdfw.3. Provide critical care for 5 rescued sea otters over a oneyear period including surrogate raising orphaned pups when feasible.4. Generate data that increases sciencebased understanding of threats to the southern sea otter population to inform recovery management and raise public awareness.to achieve the projects goals monterey BAY aquarium staff will coordinate with stranding network partners to respond to sea otter stranding reports collect deceased sea otters rescue livestranded sea otters provide husbandry and veterinary care to rescued sea otters and surrogateraise and release stranded sea otter pups. Aquarium staff will also transfer rescued sea otters to another aquarium or ZOO when deemed nonreleasable by the US fish and wildlife service. After release aquarium staff will conduct postrelease monitoring to ensure the health and wellbeing of the released otter and when necessary will recapture released sea otters to provide additional care before releasing them again. Aquarium staff will also generate data to increase understanding of threats to the sea otter population to inform management and recovery plans and expand the publics understanding of sea otters their role in healthy ecosystems threats to the population and what steps the public can take to protect this threatened species.