Once you see these curious and playful animals, you can't help but care about them. They are no longer abstract to you. Several Alliance members are currently involved in saving and rehabilitating stranded sea otters. For example, during severe storms, sea otter pups can get separated from their mothers and wash up on the beach. The pups cannot survive in the wild without constant care and teaching from their mothers.
Rescuers teach stranded pups survival skills enabling their return to the wild.
Aquariums also conduct valuable research into sea otter biology and behavior, which helps better protect sea otter habitat and manage their populations in the wild. They also continue to rehabilitate stranded and oiled animals in minor oil spills. Despite the commitment of specialists at zoos and aquariums, scientists, environmentalists and educators, and tremendous progress made in the past decade, these animals still need our help. Sea otter populations off the Aleutian Islands have dropped by 80-90 percent since the 1970s. A recent study by James A. Estes, Williams and her colleagues suggest killer whales are now eating sea otters because their usual food sources, which include fish, seals and Steller sea lions, are in rapid decline in Alaskan waters.