Rookie Otter looks to Upset Veterans in Annual Otter Bowl
The seventh annual Otter Bowl, hosted by the Aquarium of the Pacific, will be held virtually this year with a newcomer named BabyBoy poised to take the crown.
LONG BEACH, CA – The Aquarium of the Pacific will host its seventh annual Otter Bowl at noon this Sunday, Feb.13th. The adorable event will be posted on their Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages under the username: Aquarium of the Pacific.
The Otter Bowl was created originally to attract customers to the aquarium on a day where people would typically be at home watching the Super Bowl. Throughout the years, Otter Bowl has turned into a fan favorite event for the aquarium’s attendees.
2015 was the first Otter Bowl, where the otter keepers of the aquarium would make special icy treats and fill them with clams and shrimp. These treats would then be made into Super Bowl themed molds like footballs and helmets.
The otters would go to town on the treats doing things like picking them up, eating them, and taking treats away from each other all in the Super Bowl spirit.
The otter keepers, even now, fill football-shaped toys with the treats which would implore the otters to have an on-the-spot game of football themselves. The event typically has live commentating and educational facts in the in-person showings as well.
“The event made people who weren’t necessarily interested in the Super Bowl come down to the aquarium and enjoy some football with the Otter Bowl,” says Anitza Valles, Senior Manager of Web and Social Media at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
Valles goes on to say that because of circumstances concerning COVID, the Otter Bowl this year has been moved to online viewing only.
This year the fan favorite event will feature a condensed version of Otter Bowl with commentating from the aquarium’s puppet pals Axl the axolotl and Elsie Sweetmitten the sea otter.
It will also feature a slightly different lineup of otters than in the past years. Two of the older otters have unfortunately passed due to old age, and the Aquarium will fill their slots with new otters, who will have their chance at glory.
The otters participating this year will be Chloe, Betty, Milly and Babyboy. Chloe, Betty and Milly are returning veterans of the game, with Babyboy will be the rookie of the bunch. Babyboy has already been deemed a wildcard for this year’s event as deemed by Valles herself.
The Aquarium of the Pacific does offer other virtual events as well such as the Aquarium Online Academy which features educational online programming at least four times a week for free.
The programming was created for students from preschool to 12th grade, and offers a Spanish or bilingual class at 10 a.m. every Wednesday. All upcoming information for online events is accessible through the aquarium’s website at www.aquariumofpacific.org. If you would like to call for more information, please do so at 562-590-3100.
By Nick Vargas
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