Hand-holding Otters at Vancouver Aquarium

I am sure I am the last person on Planet Earth to see this streaming video, but just in case I am not, I thought I'd share it with you. This is a pair of otters, one of which survived the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, that live at the Vancouver Aquarium. They are floating around their tank, asleep and holding paws. Why would they hold paws like this? Is it so a mated pair can remain together on rough seas? Or maybe you have another idea -- well, besides giving the watching public something to oooo and aaaa over!

.

More like this

Twenty years ago today, the Exxon Valdez ran aground in the Prince William Sound and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil. Hundreds of miles of Alaskaâs coastline were coated in oil, a quarter of a million seabirds died, and one estimate puts local fisheriesâ losses at nearly $300 million…
Dan Rather was the newscaster. His lead for the CBS Evening News on Friday, March 24, 1989 was: "An oil tanker ran aground today off the nation's northern most ice-free port, Valdez, Alaska." The Exxon vessel was holding 53 million gallons of crude oil. By 3:30 am, the Coast Guard estimated that 5.…
The news from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is not good. If the NOAA estimates are right about the size of the spill it could dwarf Exxon Valdez: Over the last few days, estimates had held that the Gulf of Mexico oil spilling was leaking about 1,000 barrels, or 42,000 gallons, into the water each…
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. -Benjamin Franklin Every weekend, I try to bring something light to you, but there's a lot of heavy stuff going on in the world right now. So instead of the usual, I'd like to tell you just a little bit about why putting even a…

They do this so they can stay together while they sleep. Apparently they will "raft" together like this in larger groups as well.

A mother otter will also wrap herself and her baby in seaweed to keep them together on the ocean while they sleep.