Taylor Swift sparks sea otter fundraiser after fans rush to buy her vintage T-shirt
The aquarium were flooded with calls after she wore the t-shirt at an album release party.
A California aquarium has raised more than $2 million for sea otter conservation in just two days after Taylor Swift wears a decades-old T-shirt.
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The pop star was spotted wearing a vintage Monterey Bay Aquarium otter conservation T-shirt during a release party movie for her new album The Life of a Showgirl, sending fans racing to find the same shirt.
After being flooded with calls, the aquarium decided to re-release the 1990s shirt as part of a campaign to raise $1.3 million, a nod to Swift’s favourite number.
The fundraiser smashed its target in under eight hours, averaging about $100,000 every 15 minutes, Liz MacDonald, the aquarium’s director of content strategy said
“We definitely had a little Taylor Swift dance party in the office yesterday afternoon when we hit the goal,” she told Associated Press.
Read More: Taylor Swift releases highly anticipated new album The Life Of A Showgirl
By Friday afternoon, the aquarium had raised more than $2 million, and fans donating at least $65.13 will receive one of the special shirts.
How Swift - who was only three years old when the shirt was last produced - got hold of it remains a mystery.
She and fiancé Travis Kelce have been seen visiting nearby Carmel, but MacDonald said the aquarium isn’t aware of them having stopped by.
MacDonald added that staff have enjoyed guessing what drew Swift to the design: “One 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,” she said.
Opal is Mr Kelce’s birthstone and Opalite is the name of one of Swift’s new songs.
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Posted by Monterey Bay Aquarium on Friday, October 17, 2025
The T-shirts are being printed by Liberty Graphics, an employee-owned company in Maine, using 100% cotton and water-based ink to keep the project ocean-friendly.
“They’re 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,” MacDonald said.
“We’re also working to make sure that the packaging doesn’t use plastic,” she added.
Matt Enos, a manager at Liberty Graphics, said the company, which normally produces 1,500 shirts a day, would have to shift nearly all resources to meet demand from Swifties.
“We definitely didn’t envision something this big but it’s a pretty good problem to have,” he said.