Education

Coastal Cleanup Day began back in 1986, when two Ocean Conservancy staffers rallied volunteers to collect trash along the Texas coastline. It's grown a lot since then. The International Coastal Cleanup now takes place in almost every state and over 100 countries.

Sea otters might look like they spend their days floating around and being adorable, but there’s serious work happening beneath the surface. These marine mammals are dedicated, high-energy hunters whose feeding habits shape entire underwater ecosystems.

Every year, millions of marine animals get accidentally caught in fishing gear. From dolphins and sea otters to whales and seals, the unintended victims of commercial fishing operations face serious threats simply because they share the ocean with us. Understanding how fishing practices affect these animals is the first step toward taking action.

Many of us grew up watching documentaries about dolphins and whales, dreaming of swimming alongside these magnificent creatures as marine biologists. While marine biology careers are wonderful, they're just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Protecting our oceans involves dozens of specialized roles that most people never hear about. The world of marine wildlife careers includes everything from engineering to detective work and these lesser-known positions are absolutely essential to ocean health.

Imagine towering forests swaying in an ocean current, golden-brown fronds reaching toward sunlight filtering through the water's surface. These aren't trees but giant kelp, creating some of the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. But what are kelp forests exactly?

Sea otters and giant otters (also known as giant river otters) may share a name, but they inhabit entirely different worlds. From size and diet to social behavior and habitat, their differences reveal how evolution has perfectly tailored each to its environment.

Picture a sea otter floating peacefully on its back, whiskers frosted with ice crystals, as waves lap against a shoreline dusted with fresh powder snow. It's remarkable how utterly at ease they appear in waters that would be lethal to most mammals within minutes. What makes sea otters so remarkably suited to life in frigid seas? The answer lies in an amazing collection of adaptations that turn potential obstacles into everyday advantages.

Each September, Sea Otter Awareness Week shines a spotlight on one of the ocean’s most charismatic and essential species. With their playful nature and endearing faces, sea otters are easy to love, but their importance goes far beyond appearances. As a keystone species, they play a critical role in maintaining healthy kelp forests and marine biodiversity.

Once nearly wiped out by the fur trade, sea otters have made one of the most remarkable comebacks in wildlife conservation history. These resilient creatures have come back from the brink of extinction, but their recovery didn’t happen by accident. It happened because people like you cared enough to speak up, show up, and support the work of conservationists.

The ocean is home to some of the most fascinating creatures on Earth, and among the most commonly confused are sea otters, seals, and sea lions. While these three marine mammals may share coastal habitats and similar behaviors, they belong to different families and have distinct appearances, lifestyles, and roles in the ecosystem.