You oughta see these Northern Sea Otter pups, a calming presence on a chaotic day

It’s even more critical we start this week on the right foot Watchers, as this is the week of April 1, and we’re going to need the cute to balance the chaos. Writer Nick M. contributed this week’s inspiration, a video of Luna the baby sea otter just floating along, enjoying life with her jellyfish toy. Of course, Luna being chill and adorable absolutely sent me down the rabbit hole of sea otter pups because truly, what’s cuter than baby animals enjoying their favorite toys?

Luna is one of the sea otters living it up, as documented by trainer and team lead Nadine Trottier at the Vancouver Aquarium in British Columbia, Canada. Vancouver Aquarium’s Northern Sea Otter population consists of orphaned pup rescues that cannot be released back into the wild, usually due to the age of rescue impacting the life skills they would have acquired in the wild. Sea otters are the smallest of marine mammals, not even breaking 100 pounds when fully grown — a drop in the ocean when compared to whales, sea lions, and seals. But they definitely have personality!

Let’s learn a bit about Luna’s start at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue (VAMMR) Society’s rescue center along with aquarium-mate Tofino. Tofino and Luna were brought to the VAMMR about a month apart in 2024, hitting the VAMMR with a surprising double-whammy of care needs — both were incredibly young and needed around-the-clock care and the center had gone a few years without receiving any otter pups! Clearly, the VAMMR was up to the task, as both were transferred to the aquarium on August 18, 2024 and have been happily charming crowds since.

But before we had Luna and Tofino… there was Joey:

Joey is another resident of the aquarium after his own dramatic rehabilitation process made him a viral sensation in 2020. He came to the VAMMR at an estimated 10 days old, hungry and hypothermic, but it didn’t take long for this adorable fluff ball to start ticking all those boxes for proper health. Seriously, look at him just protesting floating time — I’m grumpy when I’m woken up with water too, buddy. If you need more of this sweet baby, the VAMMR has a full YouTube playlist of videos from his pup days.

Sadly, not all the rescue stories are happy ones, and sea otters in general hit Endangered on the IUCN’s Red List in 2000, with populations continuing to decline. Threats in the wild include predation, fishery interactions, and oil spills.

The Vancouver Aquarium clearly appreciates how cute these critters are — they maintain a regular sea otter livestream for those of us that can’t drop everything and fly out there to do our own admiring! You can also catch them and other residents on the aquarium’s social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. Float on, little friends.