Shedd Aquarium names newest otter rescue after her California roots
The newest addition to Shedd Aquarium's rescued sea otters officially has a name: Jade. The aquarium revealed the name Monday in a news release after a public vote. Winning over three other handpicked options, 'Jade' pays homage to Jade Cove south of Monterey, California, near where the otter was rescued.
'The rescued raft of sea otters serves as important ambassadors, connecting Chicagoans to coastlines and kelp forests that often feel far away, and we know how critical it is to connect on a personal level to care about it,' Andrea Oake, manager of sea otters and sea lions at Shedd Aquarium, said in a news release.
The name reveal was the culmination of a five-day onsite vote in front of the aquarium's otter exhibit in the Abbott Oceanarium, spokesperson Kayley Galassini said. With voting open from June 20 through June 25, more than 2,000 votes were cast for their favorite otter-ly appropriate name. Guests picked from a list of choices provided by caretakers at Shedd, Galassini said.
Other options included: Esa, for the Endangered Species Act; Marina, for the city where Jade was rescued; and Rey, for the Monterey Bay area.
Jade was rescued on a beach in Marina, California, by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in June 2022, Shedd officials said.
At rescue, Jade was estimated to be about 2 weeks old, and experts determined that the combination of rough sea conditions and low fog made it unlikely for her to reunite with her mother in the wild. In turn, she stayed at Monterey Bay Aquarium with around-the-clock care for six weeks before moving to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.
Jade arrived at Shedd on May 1. She'll be raised in Chicago until she's mature enough to potentially become a surrogate mother as part of Monterey Bay Aquarium's sea otter surrogacy program, an initiative Shedd has partnered with the California institution on for more than two years.
Monterey Bay's surrogacy program uses non-releasable female sea otters as surrogate mothers to raise stranded dependent pups for return to the wild, the institution says. Aquarium of the Pacific joined the venture in 2020.
And since 2022, Shedd has played a role in the program too, providing a temporary home for non-releasable female sea otters poised to one day return to California to raise rescued, orphaned pups, the aquarium said. The cross-country partnership started in October 2022, when Shedd took in two female otter pups from California — Willow and Suri. For more than two years, they grew up at Shedd. But on April 30, the pair were taken back to California to mother orphaned otter pups, according to Galassini.
Shedd took in Jade with the intent of her following in Willow and Suri's footsteps.
Jade has met several of Shedd's other rescued otters, which the aquarium in a news release said is a 'significant step in socialization as she continues to acclimate.'
'Our animal care team is happy with how well she's acclimated, and we're having a lot of fun getting to know her; she is very inquisitive but also calm and confident,' Oake, of Shedd, said in a statement. 'Guests might spot her wrapped up in her favorite enrichment item of carwash strips that mimics kelp or carrying smaller balls on her chest, or sometimes she's diving and leaping around the strips.'
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