The Marine Mammal Center

The Marine Mammal Center is a private non-profit U.S. organization centered on rescue, rehabilitation, environmental research and education regarding marine mammals such as cetaceans and seals.

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.