Our story

I started The Mocha Fund in 2021 to help endangered sea otters. The population of the Southern Sea Otter, native to the North Pacific Ocean, has fallen from 16,000 otters to just 3,000. When I was a little kid, I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the first time and saw otters playing and splashing in the water. From then on, my love of otters began. Otters are known as the dogs of the sea because of their smart, curious, and caring nature, and they definitely reminded me of my amazing dog at home. 

Otters thrive best in kelp forests since they supply the majority of their food, especially sea urchins. In 2013, there was a mysterious sea star disease that wiped out half of the sea stars in the Pacific Ocean. Since sea stars eat urchins, the urchin population rose dramatically. The urchins, in turn, eat kelp which has caused the kelp forests to become smaller and smaller. Some have disappeared completely. Due to all of these factors, Otters need the kelp forests to supply most of their food. Once the kelp forests are gone, the otters will eventually starve. This is a great but distressing example of how delicate ecosystems can be. When one part becomes off balance, eventually everything else collapses.