LONG BEACH, Calif. — The Aquarium of the Pacific has taken in two new baby sea otters.

Otter 941, or “Bee,” and otter 944, or “Cee,” were only a few weeks old when they were stranded on the beach in Monterey Bay in January.

They were transferred to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. U.S. Fish And Wildlife deemed them non-releasable, so they ended up at the aquarium in Long Beach.

Brett Long, senior director of mammals and birds, explains how a sea otter lands at the aquarium.

“When an animal strands, it’s raised in the surrogacy program at Monterey Bay Aquarium. It has to be demonstrated that it’s a healthy otter, that behaves like a normal otter, and it can function in the environment that we’re returning it back to,” he said.

Otters, who are part of the carnivorous family of mammals that also include skunks and weasels, are a keystone species in Southern California.

They were almost hunted to extinction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Their numbers have recovered only in select areas around the southern and central coasts, so they remain on the endangered list international union for the conservation of nature and natural resources.