Aquarium announces contest to name the four baby river otters born there last month

The Long Island Aquarium is holding a contest to name the four baby North American river otters born to parents “Peanut Butter” and “Jelly” on the weekend of Feb. 16, according to a press release issued today by the aquarium.

To help celebrate the births, Nancy and Keith Kouris of The Blue Duck Bakery Café are creating a commemorative cupcake — an “otterly yummy” peanut-butter-and-jelly treat, of course — to be sold at their Riverhead location through Apr. 15, when the names will be chosen.

The 10 choices available to vote on for the names of the babies, one female and three males, are cayenne, Nutella, butter, jam, sage, paprika, rye, basil and tank.

People can vote for their favorite name by visiting the aquarium’s Facebook page through Apr. 14.

A portion of the proceeds made from the cupcakes will be donated to the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, which operates New York State’s only marine mammal and sea turtle stranding program.

“Keith and I have been playing for hours to try to draw little otter faces on the cupcakes,” Nancy Kouris said of developing the commemorative peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. “It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but I think we finally got it. It’s going to be a vanilla cupcake with grape jelly filling and peanut butter frosting.”

Though the baby otters’ names will be announced within the month, the otter pups themselves won’t be visible to the public for many more moons, according to aquarium officials.

“Unfortunately, our otter pups will not be visible to the public until they start moving around on their own,” officials said. “They will nurse for up to four months, and they won’t start moving around much on their own for at least another month.”

Photo captions: (Top) One of the four river otters born at the aquarium last month. (Bottom) Prototype of the vanilla cupcake with grape jelly filling and peanut butter frosting that will be sold by the Blue Duck Bakery March 19 through April 15 for $3.50 ea. $1 will be donated to the Riverhead Foundation for each cupcake sold. The Blue Duck is located at 309 East Main St. in Riverhead.