Rosa was a crucial member of Monterey Bay Aquarium's sea otter surrogacy program — a program established by staff at the aquarium to help get orphaned otter pups safely back into the wild. During her tenure as a surrogate mother, Rosa adopted and raised 15 pups to adulthood, all of whom were released into the wild and are now thriving in the Monterey Bay area!
The Southern Sea Otter population, once thought to be extinct, has been teetering near the brink of extinction for over a century. But thanks to the tremendous efforts of incredible surrogate mothers like Rosa, and wildlife conservationists like those at Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Californian population has seen a boom from around 50 otters to an estimated 3,000 today!
Rosa's birthday (August 26) is celebrated every year by a Twitch streamer named DougDoug. In 2019, after discovering that Rosa was the world's oldest living sea otter, Doug decided to host a charity live stream for Rosa on her birthday. She quickly became an icon of his community, and the charity streams kept getting bigger and bigger each year. In total, the DougDoug community has raised over 1 million dollars for their Queen Rosa and the Monterey Bay Aquarium!
