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The Marine Mammal Center

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Release of rehabilitated pinnipeds into the Pacific Ocean
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Release of rehabilitated pinnipeds into the Pacific Ocean

The Marine Mammal Center is a private non-profit U.S. organization centered on rescue, rehabilitation, environmental research and education pertaining to certain species within the Pinnipedia, Carnivora and Cetacea biological orders. Located near Rodeo Beach in Marin County, California, the Center has received over 12,000 sick, wounded and orphaned animals since its founding in 1975. These animals strand along the Pacific Coast of the western U.S. and represent the following major species: California sea lion, Northern elephant seal, Pacific harbor seal, fur seal, dolphin and the endangered species Southern sea otter. Most of the animals brought in are successfully rehabilitated and released to the wild; no medical research is conducted using the rescued animals, although valuable scientific data is collected through routine diagnostic and necropsy analyses from the normal course of providing rehabilitation to rescued animals, which data is employed to assess disease pathologies and relation to the marine environment. Scientists at The Marine Mammal Center collaborate with their counterparts around the world (most notably from England, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Scotland, the Netherlands, France and Germany) in working on complex individual animal treatment cases, and also participate in joint research projects regarding interaction of ocean dwelling mammals with the marine environment. Research at the Marine Mammal Center has included relationship of red tides and neurological damage to Pacific Coast pinnipedia and carnivora. Other recent studies have involved the causation of increasing outbreaks of leptospirosis, a pathogen induced illness creating acute kidney damage, in marine mammals. The education outreach program reaches in excess of 100,000 school children and members of the general public each year, emphasizing man’s connection to the marine environment.

Pacific harbor seal in recuperation pool at the Marine Mammal Center. Photo Credit: The Marine Mammal Center
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Pacific harbor seal in recuperation pool at the Marine Mammal Center. Photo Credit: The Marine Mammal Center

Contents

Rescue and rehabilitation

The primary mission of The Marine Mammal Center is to take in animals that are not at present fit to survive in the wild and proceed to diagnose and rehabilitate these creatures. While most of the animals treated are afflicted with natural illness such as disease or malnutrition, a certain number have received injury from human action: most commonly from illegal pickup, gunshot, fish netting entrainment. There are also illnesses suspected from human activity such as chemical pollution of the ocean The Marine Mammal Center is able to rehabilitate a strong fraction of the animals cared for and accomplish a release into the wild.

Sometimes release into the wild is not a viable option. For example two sea lion pups were hand reared by humans at The Marine Mammal Center, because the mother sea lion died shortly after giving birth. Due to the imprinting that was a necessary outcome of successful rearing of the pups, these pups lacked the survival skills to compete in the wild marine environment. They were transferred to the National Zoo, who wanted two pups to complete a sea lion familyKarlyn Barker, National Zoo: Duo in the Swim at Beaver Valley, Washington Post, Wednesday, May 3, 2006; Page B03.

Facilities, budget and governance

Approximately $5,000,000 per annum is required to finance The Marine Mammal Center’s present operations. Having a lean overhead, 87% of expenditures go directly to animal care, veterinary expense and education programs. Facilities include the Marin Headlands headquarters, California field stations in San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Anchor Bay and an interpretive center at Pier 39 in San Francisco. The present facilities and staff, numbering 50 paid staff and 800 trained volunteers, can accommodate a maximum throughput of approximately 1200 animals per annum. The Marine Mammal Center has 35,000 members, increasingly including international constituents, and governance is by a 16 member board of directors, to whom the Executive Director B.J. Griffin reports.

The main physical plant in Marin County is currently undergoing extensive modernization and upgrading. Presently there are numerous outdoor pens with pools and haul out surfaces; there are also special purpose facilities including a veterinary hospital, records room, food preparation and storage rooms and rescue equipment storage area. The hospital includes an operating room, treatment areas, office and pharmaceuticals storage. Some of the functions of the hospital include thoracic surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, orthopedic surgery as well as routine examinations and blood sampling for patient diagnosis. Some of the equipment used include electroencephalography devices, positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.

Anesthesia being delivered to adult elephant seal prior to surgery. Photo courtesy: The Marine Mammal Center
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Anesthesia being delivered to adult elephant seal prior to surgery. Photo courtesy: The Marine Mammal Center

Research function

The research team consists of veterinarians and biologists, who conduct not only medical diagnosis and intervention, but also publish scientific reports on findings of marine animal health in relation to the Pacific Ocean’s environmental chemistry. This scientific research program in collaboration with other selected technology centers provides vital information on marine mammal diseases, immunological systems and how these animals are affected by changes in their marine environment. Some principal areas of scientific research are:

A number of recent research investigations have involved collaborations with other organizations. For example, in conjunction with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The Center is invovled with the endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal. Coordinating with research teams in three other countries (Russia, Mexico and Canada), studies in the health of the Gray Whale have been pursued. Work on the Steller sea lion has been carried out in association with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Research on harbor seals has been conducted involving Point Reyes National Seashore, University of California, Davis, Caltrans, and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. In recent years visiting scientists from countries including Norway, Brazil, Mexico, as well as numerous regions of the USA have come to The Marine Mammal Center to collaborate on joint scientific queries.

Personnel from The Marine Mammal Center rescue an adult sea lion Photo courtesy: The Marine Mammal Center
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Personnel from The Marine Mammal Center rescue an adult sea lion Photo courtesy:  The Marine Mammal Center

Success stories

Most of the animals admitted to the Center are rehabilitated and either released to the wild or transferred to other locations. The staff have invented dozens of types of apparatus and specific protocols for rescuing, transporting and feeding the marine mammals admitted to care. They also maintain a small fleet of ocean going inflatable boats and transport trucks. Some specific examples among the thousands of successful outcomes are:

Net entangled Humpback whale. In December 2005, a large female Humpback whale was rescued at sea off of the Farallon Islands, after she became entrained in crab pot lines on her migration to Baja California. The daring maneuver was carried out by The Marine Mammal Center staff and volunteers along with professional divers and was the Center's first successful open ocean rescue of a whale entangled in netting.

Orphaned Steller sea lion pup at Ano Nuevo Island. In the year 2000, a malnourished 37 pound (17 kg) pup was found alone stranded on Ano Nuevo Island, a location known for Northern sea elephant rookeries, but not as a birthing location for stellar sea lions. After restoring Artemis to health and a release into the wild, this same animal was spotted (and identified by a unique tag) on the identical island again after having given birth to a new pup. This was a particularly unusual outcome, since no pup is known to have been born on that island for at least twenty years. Humphrey the whale is arguably the most widely publicized humpback whale in historyWendy Tokuda, Humphrey the lost whale, Heian Intl Publishing Company, 1992 ISBN: 0893463469Ernest Callenbach and Christine Leefeldt, Humphrey the Wayward Whale, ISBN: 0-930588-23-1, having errantly entered San Francisco Bay twice, departing from his Mexico to Alaska migration, with each episode of his bay excursions resulting in dramatic estuarine rescues in 1985 and again in 1990 by The Marine Mammal Center, assisted by the U.S. Coast Guard and hundreds of other volunteers. The first rescue was actually to turn Humphrey around in the Sacramento River, while the second was to unbeach him from the mudflats north of Sierra Point below the Dakin Building.

Selected recent publications involving The Marine Mammal Center staff as authors

The staff of The Marine Mammal Center contributes regularly to scientific investigation involving marine mammal disease diagnosis and pathology, as well as to environmental and behavioral aspects of their rescue patients. The following are an abbreviated list of representativeThe Marine Mammal Center Annual Report 2005, Marin Headlands, 1065 Fort Cronkhite, Sausalito,Ca. 94965 publications (The Marine Mammal Center staff involved in these particular publications are Goldstein, Greig, Gulland, Haulena, Lawrence and Zabka):

See also

References

External links

 

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