SAN DIEGO — Abby is a sea otter who lives at SeaWorld San Diego and has a legendary reputation for being a supermom.

What You Need To Know

  • Abby is a sea otter who was stranded and rescued as a three-day-old pup

  • She became an important part of the Sea Otter Surrogacy Program

  • She successfully raised five orphaned pups during her 10 years at Monterey Bay Aquarium

  • Abby is now retired back to her original home at SeaWorld San Diego

Keleigh Owens is part of the team who takes care of their otters. She said Abby also helps them with keeping everyone in line.

“If we need to kind of calm a group down a little bit, Abby’s an animal we can get in there and she just kind of brings that calmness into the group,” Owens said.  

Abby was stranded and rescued as a 3-day-old pup and was then hand-raised at SeaWorld San Diego. It didn’t take them long to realize she has some of the strongest maternal instincts they’ve ever seen.

She was transferred to Monterey Bay Aquarium and became an important part of their Sea Otter Surrogacy Program. She successfully raised five orphaned pups during her 10 years at Monterey Bay Aquarium as a “foster mom” before she retired back to her original home at SeaWorld San Diego.

Shirley Hill also helps take care of Abby at SeaWorld San Diego and said every pup she raised was reintroduced back into the wild to help rebuild sea otter populations.

“Oh, just how valuable her contribution to the population as a whole was and is. She’s amazing,” Hill said.

In the early 1900s, sea otters almost disappeared after being hunted for their fur. They play a key role in keeping California’s kelp forests healthy and are still listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“Essentially, with sea otters, we have healthy kelp forests. Without sea otters, we don’t,” Hill said.  

California’s wild population has just over 3,000 sea otters and is slowly recovering thanks to actions like the Sea Otter Surrogacy Program and mothers like Abby.

Abby is 15-years-old now and is enjoying a well-deserved retirement with five other rescued sea otters at SeaWorld San Diego’s Otter Outlook. She will continue to help educate visitors about the plight of sea otters and how important it is to protect them.

“It’s amazing to see her interact with them,” Owens said. “She really is the epitome of that great surrogate mom.”

Monterey Bay Aquarium scientists estimate that those surrogate-raised otters and their wild offspring account for more than half of sea otter population growth over the past 15 years in Monterey Bay.