{"id":11515,"date":"2025-10-18T15:27:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/11515\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T15:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T15:27:06","slug":"taylor-swift-wearing-a-vintage-t-shirt-about-sea-otter-conservation-sparks-2-million-windfall-for-northern-california-aquarium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/11515\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift wearing a vintage T-shirt about sea otter conservation sparks $2 million windfall for Northern California aquarium"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Northern California aquarium has raised more than $2 million for sea otter conservation in just two days. All it took was Taylor Swift wearing a vintage T-shirt.<\/p>\n

Swift wore a vintage Monterey Bay Aquarium otter conservation T-shirt in a release party movie for her new\u00a0\u201cThe Life of a Showgirl\u201d album<\/a>, sending her ardent fans on a quest to buy the shirt last produced in the 1990s. After the aquarium was flooded with calls about buying the T-shirt showing two otters floating on their back, it decided to re-release the garment Thursday as part of a special campaign to raise $1.3 million, a nod to Swift\u2019s favorite number, said Liz MacDonald, the aquarium\u2019s director of content strategy.<\/p>\n

The aquarium met and surpassed its goal to raise the funds for its sea otter conservation program in less than eight hours, averaging about $100,000 in sales every 15 minutes, MacDonald said. Donors who give at least $65.13 to its newest fundraising campaign to help injured and orphan otters will be mailed a T-shirt, MacDonald said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely had a little Taylor Swift dance party in the office yesterday afternoon when we hit the goal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The aquarium began accepting back-orders and by Friday afternoon it had raised more than $2 million, according to its website.<\/p>\n

How Swift acquired the T-Shirt that was last produced more than 32 years ago \u2014 when she was just 3 years old \u2014 remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

She and fianc\u00e9 Travis Kelce have been documented visiting nearby Carmel, but MacDonald said the aquarium is not aware of the couple having been in their shop.<\/p>\n

MacDonald said the staff has had fun speculating about Swift\u2019s interest in the T-shirt.<\/p>\n

When Taylor announced the release of her new album on\u00a0Kelce\u2019s podcast \u201cNew Heights\u201d<\/a>\u00a0a couple of weeks ago, the couple had a little banter about how he loves otters and loves sending her videos of the furry sea creatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my favorite theories is that we have a sea otter on our exhibit whose name is Opal and she was named by the fans through an online poll, and I wonder if Taylor Swift may have been one of the people that voted for the name Opal,\u201d MacDonald said, adding that opal is Kelce\u2019s birthstone and that Opalite is the name of one of Swift\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason, the aquarium and Liberty Graphics, an employee-owned company printing the T-shirts, are reveling in the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a company based in Maine who were as taken by surprise as us, but who are also as delighted to have this opportunity to be part of this amazing moment that does so much for sea otters and for ocean conservation,\u201d MacDonald said.<\/p>\n

Liberty Graphics will use 100% cotton in the T-shirts and water-based ink, which is more ocean-friendly and sustainable, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also working to make sure that the packaging doesn\u2019t use plastic,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The company of 50 employees normally produces 1,500 shirts a day, said Matt Enos, a company manager.<\/p>\n

Enos said that beginning Monday the company will probably have to focus most of its resources on fulfilling T-shirt orders from Swifties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely didn\u2019t envision something this big but it\u2019s a pretty good problem to have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Northern California aquarium has raised more than $2 million for sea otter conservation in just two days.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1959,330,10234],"class_list":{"0":"post-11515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-conservation","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-taylor-swift"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}