Aquarium’s marine mammals meet Ocean Wise program standards

The Vancouver Aquarium’s marine mammals are fully compliant with Ocean Wise, even though most human seafood lovers are not.

An adult sea otter eats 25 to 30 per cent of its body weight daily due to a high metabolic rate required to maintain body heat in cold waters.

For Elfin, the aquarium’s 15-year-old male, that amounts to 6.5 kg of Ocean Wise certified-sustainable seafood daily — 4.5 kg of clams and one kg each of shrimp and squid.

To put that sort of gluttony into perspective, a 68-kilogram (150-pound) human would have to eat at least 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds) of food daily — or 150 quarter-pound hamburgers.