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Sea otter raft in Elkhorn Slough
Sea otter raft in Elkhorn Slough

Your donations directly support our grant award recipients (see below).



Donate the old-fashioned way:
Sea Otter Foundation & Trust
P.O. Box 351946
Westminster, CO 80035

2022-2023 Grant award recipients:

  • Elkhorn Slough Foundation – Reserve Otter Monitoring Program (ROMP) (2022): Grant funds the purchase of iPads to streamline data collection for sea otter monitoring in Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve
  • Kansas City Zoo (2023): In 2023, the Kansas City Zoo is opening a new state-of-the-art aquarium that will feature sea otters in the Rocky Shore Cold Coastline Zone. Grant is funding transportation crates as well as the necessary equipment to care for the new sea otters coming to the facility.
  • Oregon State University (2022): Funding supported the work of Master’s student Laura Geissinger who is investigating sea otter foraging behavior along Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.  Geissinger is specifically examining whether razor clams are part of the sea otter diet in that locale.
  • Seattle Aquarium (2022): Research award supports the study by Dr. Zachary Randell to better understand the biological processes—such as the role of keystone sea otter predation—that provide resilience to Washington’s coastal ecosystems.  Funding purchased a BlueROV2 and we have funded the continuation of his research in 2022. Randell’s team have conducted a myriad of dives with the ROV and have obtained substantial imagery of the benthos.
  • University of California: Santa Cruz (2023): Funding supports Dr. Terrie Williams, Lilian Carswell and Michelle Staedler and others who will be commencing a multi-year study regarding sea otter habitat use, stressors, and social structures in an estuarine population (specifically Elkhorn Slough). One of the main objectives of the first year of this study is to obtain information that will inform sea otter reintroduction planning.
  • University of Alaska: Fairbanks (2023): Funding supports two research projects:
        • Ph.D. candidate Carter Johnson is investigating interactions sea otters are having with Dungeness crab in southeast Alaska.
        • Brenda Konar is examining sea otter use of oyster farms in Kachemak Bay Alaska

Past grant awardees:

Alaska SeaLife Center, Elkhorn Slough Foundation, The Marine Mammal Center, NOAA’s Team OCEAN, Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon Wild, Oregon Zoo Foundation, SeaLife Response, Rehabilitation & Research, Seattle Aquarium, Graduate students from Sonoma State University, Stanford University, University of California Davis & University of California Santa Cruz.

We are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your contribution is tax-deductible as allowed by law. EIN: 46-4183357.