Sea otters are keystone species whose welfare is shaped by their energetically demanding lifestyle, entanglement risks, and the health of the kelp forest ecosystems they help maintain.
Sea otter welfare is shaped by the extraordinary energetic demands of maintaining body temperature in cold Pacific waters without blubber. Otters that cannot find sufficient food — due to prey depletion, injury, or disease — face rapid hypoglycaemia and death. Entanglement injuries cause drowning or limb damage that prevents the foraging on which survival depends. Oil spill welfare impacts are particularly severe: a single oil-contaminated coat removes the thermoinsulation that keeps otters alive in cold water, causing hypothermia and death within hours unless rescued and cleaned. The welfare of sea otter pups, which depend entirely on their mother for food and thermoregulation during their first months, is doubly vulnerable — maternal injury or death creates an orphan care emergency. Monterey Bay Aquarium has pioneered surrogate mother programmes for orphaned pups that maintain wild-appropriate behaviour for release.