Monterey Bay Aquarium Youth size 6-3/4 Otter Kelp Forest Purple Painters Military Cadet Cap This is a clean pre owned embroidered youth or petite lady sized painter's cap embroidered with a scene from Monterey Bay Aquarium's Kelp forest with adorable otters, that appears unworn. The hat is adjustable with a hook and loop closure and adjusts to an average size of 6-3/4 or 21 inches and can be adjusted approimately an inch smaller or larger. Monterey Bay Aquarium is a nonprofit public aquarium in Monterey, California. Known for its regional focus on the marine habitats of Monterey Bay, it was the first to exhibit a living kelp forest when it opened in October 1984. Its biologists have pioneered the animal husbandry of jellyfish and it was the first to successfully care for and display a great white shark. The organization's research and conservation efforts also focus on sea otters, various birds, and tunas. At 28 feet tall and 65 feet long, the Kelp Forest exhibit is the focal point of Monterey Bay Aquarium's Ocean's Edge wing. Nearly three stories high, the exhibit is regarded as the first successful attempt to maintain a living kelp forest in an artificial setting. During the facility's planning and construction, professionals doubted that kelp could be grown in an aquarium at this scale, and, even if it could be grown, critics of the project did not think the public would be interested in seeing this representation of Monterey Bay. The exhibit's success at sustaining giant kelp and its realistic appearance are attributed to the availability of direct sunlight, the use of natural seawater from Monterey Bay, and a surge machine that replicates California's pulsing water currents and allows the kelp in the exhibit to grow an average of 4 inches per day. Kelp forests are important ecosystems along California's coast and the exhibit contains species of fish indigenous to Monterey Bay, including rockfishes and leopard sharks. Rescued sea otters live in a habitat holding 55,000 US gallons, and are the only marine mammals exhibited. Monterey Bay Aquarium's Sea Otter Research and Conservation program began in 1984 to research and rehabilitate wild southern sea otters. As of October 2017, more than 800 individuals had completed the rehabilitation program and researchers have collected data on wild sea otter populations using electronic tags. An otter rescued in 2001 began the program's surrogacy efforts, in which adult female sea otters that have been rehabilitated but cannot be released act as surrogate mothers to stranded sea otter pups. The aquarium was the only sea otter rehabilitation site in California until The Marine Mammal Center began expanding a program for sea otters in 2017.