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I took the boat to South Beach Marina today for breakfast, then for a short patrol up the SF waterfront.  As we approached the Ferry Building, we came upon a sea otter floating on his back.  We usually see plenty of marine mammals in the bay, such as sea lions and harbor seals, but I’ve never seen a sea otter in the bay.

I called up The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito to see if these sightings were common and to find out if the otter may be lost. The woman on the phone informed me that, although uncommon, sea otters sometimes venture into the bay.

The otter was quite active and curious. He kept swimming very close to the boat, underneath it and poking his head up near us. After hanging out with him for about 20 minutes, he decided he’d had enough and climbed aboard to see what we were up to. Not only were we surprised to spot a sea otter in the bay, but now the little guy was on board with us, chillin’. It was absolutely amazing!

He was quite curious, but still cautious about coming on board much. He would also keep slipping off the boat and landing back in the water. After boarding us for about the fifth time, we decided to shoot some video.

We spent about 1 hour total with him and gave him a short ride north of the Ferry Building, away from the danger of the Ferries.  He seemed to appreciate the ride, but I’m not sure he was ready to let us leave.  When we decided to leave him, we waited for him to slip off and clear our propellers, then started to drive away slowly.  He looked at us quite questionably, as if he was asking, “And where do you think you’re going?”.  Then he tried his best to swim after him.

Playing with the wildlife was definitely an enjoyable experience.  We were able to respect the fact that he was a wild animal but still able to make a sort of connection.  We were obviously able to build trust in each other: him to trust us enough to come on board, and us to trust him enough not to bite or become aggressive.

The otter had a tag on each of his hind flippers.  We gave the tag numbers to the Marine Mammal Center. Â When we got back to the Station, I emailed the woman the pictures and videos we had taken and asked her to keep me updated on any word on the tags.  It turns out, the otter had been rescued as a pup by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and spent about 6 months in rehab for a bad case of pneumonia.  They had released him on January 10th and hadn’t heard from him since about a week after.  The Aquarium feared the worst: a shark had gotten him. So, of course, they were ecstatic to hear the word from us that he was in fact very very healthy. All in all, a great moment of “work”.