“Olive the Oiled Otter” dies after being attacked by a shark

California’s own otter ambassador has died.

According to the State Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olive the otter was killed by a shark bite.

“Her carcass was in an advanced state of decomposition, but we found wounds consistent with a shark bite,” said Colleen Young, CDFW wildlife biologist, who collected Olive’s carcass for examination. “We also found a large, serrated tooth fragment from a white shark in one of the wounds, which confirmed our suspicions that she was bit by a shark.”

Olive made headlines back in 2009 after she was found covered in oil on Sunset State Beach in Watsonville.

Olive was about a year old at the time. A team from CDFW, the Marine Mammal Center, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab rescued, washed and rehabilitated her.

At the time a new protocol to rehabilitate oiled sea life was performed on Olive, placing her in a pool of warm softened fresh water. The protocol was developed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, UCSC, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and The UC Davis Oiled Wildlife Care Network. Researchers say this method drastically improved her recovery time and Olive’s fur and weight was back to normal.

The team put a tracking tag on Olive so she could be monitored after she returned to the wild.

Olive was monitored occasionally between April 2009 through December 2011, but in January 2012, scientists monitored her on a weekly basis.

During a health exam in July 2012 scientists learned that Olive was pregnant.

She gave birth to her first known pup in late August or early September 2012.

Olive weaned that pup, and since then gave birth to, and successfully weaned two additional pups. Researchers heralded that as a great contribution to the southern sea otter population because of their threatened status on the Endangered Species Act list.

“We owe Olive a lot because she gave us a lot. She showed us that with our newer methods of washing, rinsing and recovering oiled sea otters, even very sick, starved and badly tarred sea otters could be saved,” said David Jessup, the retired CDFW wildlife veterinarian who oversaw Olive’s initial washing and rehabilitation.

“She showed us that oiled sea otters can go on to live normal healthy lives, have healthy pups, be good mothers and then die of natural causes.”

Olive was about 7-years-old.