Baby sea otter named Caterpillar rescued off central California coast

Marine Mammal Center in Morro Bay and local harbor patrol teamed up for mission to reunite pup with its mother

It was a foggy October afternoon on the central California coast when the Marine Mammal Center got a call on their public hotline: there were distressed cries coming from the frigid waters in Morro Bay.

The center's experts were able to determine that the calls - which sounded almost like a human baby screeching - were coming from a roughly two-week-old sea otter pup that had been separated from its mother.