Surfboard-stealing otter of Santa Cruz appears with tiny pup

Monterey Bay’s most notorious marauding marine mammal has surfaced — with a furry little copy of itself.

The Santa Cruz sea otter that shot to fame after photos spread worldwide of it stealing and riding on surfers’ boards has been photographed with a tiny newborn pup at its side.

Otter 841, with its distinctive blue tag from former captivity, was spotted Tuesday with a miniature version of itself at the same iconic surfing spot where it perpetrated mayhem on the waves this summer, and for months evaded capture by authorities deploying boats, nets, cages and scuba divers.

San Jose State University environmental studies professor and Santa Cruz resident Dustin Mulvaney, who has made a hobby out of spotting and photographing Otter 841, stopped by Lighthouse Point and the Steamer Lane surf break Tuesday and saw the animal, then noticed it was not alone. “I was like, ‘That looks like two otters,'” Mulvaney said Wednesday during a visit to the same location.

In recent weeks 841 — born in captivity at a UC Santa Cruz research center, and raised by its mother at the Monterey Bay Aquarium before being released — had appeared to have a swollen belly, Mulvaney said. He suspected the five-year-old animal may have been sick, or pregnant. Once he realized Tuesday he was seeing a little otter next to 841 and 841 had deflated to its previous size, he said, “It was a great feeling. It says that she’s doing well, and she had a successful pregnancy.”

Jess Fujii, sea otter program manager at the Aquarium, noted Wednesday that after 841 began interacting with surfers, experts hypothesized that its seemingly aggressive behavior toward humans may have resulted from pregnancy-related hormonal changes, but it could not be determined at the time whether the otter was pregnant. Gestation usually lasts six months, but can be as short as four, Fujii said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife, which has been leading efforts to capture 841, did not immediately respond to questions Wednesday about the otter and whether the agency would continue trying to catch it if it had a pup. The Aquarium, whose staff were involved in the capture effort, said Wednesday it did not have enough information to confirm whether the animal had given birth.

Surfer Jason Gingery of Santa Cruz, about to head into the waves Wednesday, said he had a run-in three weeks ago with an otter he believed to be 841. The animal snatched his daughter’s stand-up paddleboard paddle when she left it floating to dive into the water, and appeared to be playing, gnawing on the paddle and swimming away slowly, said Gingery, a property inspector, 53. He spent a half hour trying to get the $200 paddle back without antagonizing the animal. “I’m like, ‘Oh, gosh, I’ve got to be respectful, but I’ve got to get that paddle back,'” he said. In the end, the otter appeared to tire of the paddle, or get hungry, and dove beneath the surface, leaving the implement floating for Gingery and Lilianna, 15, to retrieve — with no damage to its tough carbon fiber.

Mulvaney had been joined Tuesday at the ocean by Mark Woodward, a local photographer who first documented 841’s wave-born larceny in mid-June, and whose photos of 841 riding stolen surfboards have fascinated and delighted wildlife lovers around the world. Woodward has spent day after day photographing the animal, chronicling authorities’ many unsuccessful efforts to catch it, and posting photos on social media of scofflaws breaking federal law by deliberately approaching 841 too closely. “I started feeling pretty attached to her,” Woodward said Wednesday at Lighthouse Point. The pup, Woodward said, was about the smallest he has seen. “I started feeling a little emotional,” he said.

An otter appearing to be 841 with its youngster was floating just off Lighthouse Point on Wednesday morning and early afternoon, periodically diving while the pup floated. When both were on the surface, the pup bobbed nearby or nuzzled and rolled around on its parent.

Female sea otters typically start having young around two to four years of age, usually a single offspring at a time, Fujii said.

“Sea otter pups are very dependent on their mothers for care — this includes grooming the pup’s coat to keep it dry and warm, providing milk and prey once it’s old enough, providing protection, and teaching it the essential skills the pup will need to survive on its own,” Fujii said.

“As the pup grows and is able to dive on its own, it will learn from mom how to find prey on the sea floor and open the hard-shelled prey to eat,” Fujii said. Young otters typically remain with their mothers for about six months, she added.

After Woodward’s photos highlighted Otter 841’s behavior this summer, federal and state wildlife authorities deemed the creature — whose powerful jaws smash shellfish — a possible threat to ocean-users’ safety, and embarked on a bid to remove it temporarily from its habitat. One day, they stretched a net more than 200 yards between two boats and tried to herd the otter into it, Woodward said. As with many other efforts, they failed.

“Every time they tried to catch her it became a circus,” Woodward said. “I saw them 10 or 12 times with nets and cages.”

Woodward on Wednesday fretted that renewed attention to 841 could lead to more of the harassment he witnessed over the summer. Fujii said a female sea otter with a pup may need to eat half its weight daily to survive and feed and care for its offspring. “If people get too close and cause disturbance, the otters are wasting energy when swimming away,” she said. “When this happens repeatedly it can lead to the mom or pup not surviving. It’s incredibly important for people to stay away from all sea otters, and especially those with pups.”

Surfer Damian Fahrenfort, coming out of the water at Steamer Lane on Wednesday, was quite familiar with 841, despite living in Southern California. The former pro surfer had seen two otters diving nearby while he waited for a wave, and he worried briefly he might get a nip on the foot. But, he said, “If they bite me, I probably shouldn’t be there.”