SEATTLE -- A 21-year-old northern sea otter that survived the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska died Thursday at the Seattle Aquarium. Nuka had lived at the aquarium since 2001 after spending the earlier part of its life at a Chicago aquarium.
Aquarium officials say Nuka was considered geriatric and its health had been declining over the past several months. Aquarium staff and mammal biologists and her veterinarian decided the time had come to euthanize it.
Nuka was the oldest of the aquarium's sea otters.
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