Friday, September 21, 2012

Holy Herring, It\'s Sea Otter Awareness Week!

By ANDY NEWMAN

The demands placed on today's civic-minded citizen can be crushing. No sooner have you put away your truck tires (World Rubber Day was Sept. 12) and your eye patch (International Talk Like a Pirate Day, Sept. 19) than it's time to gear up for World Contraception Day next Wednesday.

Well, make room in your schedule, people: Sea Otter Awareness Week begins Saturday at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island.

Tazo, 2, and Jacob, 10, the aquarium's resident Enhydra lutris, will be co-hosting a full lineup of educational activities this weekend and next.

Visitors will be able to feel real otter pelts and eyeball replicas of otter skulls and flippers. There will be crafts for the children, Sea Otter Story Time and, of course, feedings.

Tazo, by the way, was named by his former owners at the Alaska Sea Life Center (see awesome pictures and video of baby Tazo here and below). It was not i mmediately clear if he is named for the brand of iced tea sold at Starbucks. The New York Aquarium says it does not sell animal naming rights to corporate sponsors.)

When he was young: Tazo the sea otter's childhood in Alaska.

Sea otters are native to the North Pacific, where in all seriousness their habitats in Alaska and elsewhere are threatened by climate change. They are an endangered species. So go check them out.



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