MONTEREY, Calif. - California's Monterey Bay Aquarium has apologized after some people perceived a tweet about a sea otter as body-shaming.

The aquarium on Tuesday tweeted a picture of Abby, an otter who helps train orphaned otters how to survive in the wild. The tweet featured social media words and phrases such as "thick," "c h o n k" and "OH LAWD SHE COMIN" which are often used to describe someone who is overweight.

People took offence.

The aquarium on Wednesday tweeted a multipart apology that it called a "learning moment." It apologized and said it was unaware of the connotations associated with some of the memes.

The aquarium says "Abby is looking fit."

Abby is a thicc girl

What an absolute unit

She c h o n k

Look at the size of this lady

OH LAWD SHE COMIN

Another Internetism ! pic.twitter.com/s5fav2gu09 — Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 18, 2018

Hey everyone. It has come to our attention that some of the references in this tweet are problematic and insensitive. We're posting here in the thread so that people who have engaged with this tweet will join us in our learning moment. 1/4 — Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 19, 2018

If our tweet alienated you, please know that we are deeply sorry, and that we offer our sincerest apologies. If you follow our feed, we often reference popular memes to talk about the ocean. In this case, the memes used had connotations we were unaware of until now. 2/4 — Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 19, 2018

In particular, several terms referenced originated from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and specifically reference Black women's bodies. Using them in a sea otter meme without that background makes insinuations we never intended. We need to do better. 3/4 — Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 19, 2018