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Oil-Soaked Otters Flown to San Diego : Sea World Tending to Victims of Spill

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Times Staff Writer

Five Alaskan sea otters have been flown to Sea World for care after being rescued from the oily waters of Alaska’s Prince William Sound following the nation’s worst oil spill, park officials said Tuesday.

One of the five has died, almost certainly from the effects of the oil, according to Sea World spokesman Dan LeBlanc.

A necropsy was being performed Tuesday afternoon, but park officials said the otter probably died from exposure, malnutrition or toxic reaction from ingesting the oil. When oiled, an otter’s fur becomes matted and can no longer act as insulation from the cold. The otter then may die from hypothermia or pneumonia.

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“Four are doing fine, but one has gone to that big otter pool in the sky,” LeBlanc said. “It was a youngster and she wasn’t in good shape. We kept her in intensive care, but she (became) comatose and wasn’t eating . . . there was nothing we could do for her.”

The four remaining otters are in stable condition in a tank closed to the public, said Tom Goff, curator of mammals. “But their fur is completely soaked so the water will penetrate directly to their skin.”

Because the otters had their fur scrubbed in Alaska with a special combination of detergent and water, natural oils in their fur have been reduced, and the fur is no longer waterproof. It will take the otters four to six weeks to regenerate those natural oils, Goff said.

Sea World staff will monitor the animals 24 hours a day in a 7,000-gallon holding tank with a “haul-out” area where the otters can sun themselves, Goff said. When they are completely rehabilitated, they will be returned to the wild, Goff said. Tuesday’s 90-degree weather seemed to be helping the furry creatures.

Meanwhile, two Sea World employees--senior animal care specialist Marilyn Dudley from San Diego and Bob Wagoner, assistant curator of mammals in Florida--have joined two scientists from Sea World’s Hubbs Marine Research Institute in Valdez to help clean and look after otters rescued from the sound’s oily waters and blackened shores.

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