Otter 841

Otter 841, also known as Sea Otter 841, is a female southern sea otter who attracted publicity in mid-2023 for her aggressive interactions with surfers and kayakers off the coast of Santa Cruz, California.
841 was born at the Coastal Science Campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz and raised at Monterey Bay Aquarium by her mother, Otter 723, with minimal human intervention. In June 2020 she was released into the wild at Moss Landing Wildlife Area.
In October 2023, it was confirmed that 841 had given birth to a pup. After not being sighted again for several months, she reappeared in the Santa Cruz area in May 2024.
In October 2025, incidents involving otters seizing surfboards resurfaced in Santa Cruz. It is unknown whether 841 was the perpetrator or if she inspired copycats.
Otter 841 does not have an official given name since by convention zoologists usually apply non-generic names only to captive animals, but she has been nicknamed "Laverna" after the Roman goddess of thieves.