The internationally celebrated 8th annual Sea Otter Awareness Week came to a close this past weekend and as always was a lot of fun and a big success. In addition to events held around the country at aquariums and museums, which are designed to educate people and increase awareness about the challenges sea otters are facing, some of the Defenders of Wildlife staff and our dedicated volunteers from the Wildlife Volunteer Corps participated in international Coastal Beach Cleanup Day at Goleta Beach in Santa Barbara, California.

Goleta Beach cleanup

They then held a beach screening of the environmental film, “The 11th Hour”, that evening at the same beach. The screening was made possible by a grant Defenders of Wildlife had been awarded from the California Coastal Fund. It was preceded by a public service announcement (PSA) welcoming sea otters back to the shores of Santa Barbara, narrated by renowned explorer and wildlife conservationist, Philippe Cousteau.

Jacob and Anastasia at the beach screening of The 11th Hour

The film screening and creation of the PSA were also made possible by the tireless work of Anastasia Hill and Jacob Eurich, two Santa Barbara students that had been hired by Defenders through the California Coastal Fund grant.

A special thank you goes out to the mayor of Santa Barbara who was kind enough to come to the beach screening and say a few words about sea otters and their return to their historic habitat off the coast of Santa Barbara. Also thanks to Jim Curland, Defenders’ Marine Program Associate, who attended the cleanup and MC’d the beach screening. Jim also works tirelessly on sea otter conservation issues in California, and can be seen in this video interview with KION-TV in California.

Defenders is proud to say that for this year’s Sea Otter Awareness Week (SOAW) there were 46 elected officials in all that formally recognized SOAW not to mention the participation from countless museums of natural history, marine institutions, federal and state agencies, educators, and others.   The number of Aquariums/Zoos were 15 (with continued participation from the Vancouver Aquarium in Vancouver, British Columbia and first time participation from Oceanário de Lisboa – Lisbon, Portugal).  We also had first time participation from the Alaska Museum of Natural History in Anchorage.

Visit www.saveseaotters.org to learn more about how you can make a positive difference for sea otters.

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