Happy World Otter Day! The Sequoia Park Zoo is celebrating by spending time with their otters Toby, Etu and Takoda today, while the Fortuna Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to display its North Coast Otter Art Initiative otter sculpture.

The North Coast Otters Art Initiative (including a fundraiser and scavenger hunt of 100 plus otter sculptures) was set to begin last year but much like every other event, the COVID-19 pandemic postponed it. But the initiative's creator Jeff Black told the Journal that the project will commence this summer, he's just waiting on approval by Humboldt State University for an official set date.

Fortuna Chamber of Commerce shared a sneak peek of their otter "Poppy Rose McOtter" that will live at the River Lodge in Fortuna until the fundraiser auction, where the majority of the otter sculptures will be sold to raise money for internships for HSU wildlife students and to support watershed projects by nonprofit organizations, like the Mad River Alliance.


"There are 13 different species of otter worldwide, from the Asian small-clawed otters to the Giant otters of the Amazon," reads a tweet from the Sequoia Park Zoo.