The Marine Mammal Center is urgently seeking volunteer support to help fill a number of critical roles during our hospital’s busiest time of the year: “pupping season.” The Center is responding to 8-10 animals daily along our 600-mile rescue range as northern elephant seals and Pacific harbor seals are giving birth to their pups along the central and northern California coast.

Rescue volunteersat The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA, load California sea lion patients into a rescue truck in preparation for their release back into the wild. The Center is looking for volunteers with a wide range of skills to help fill key shifts throughout the week including rescue transport drivers. To learn more and sign up please visit: http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/Get-Involved/volunteer/Photo © The Marine Mammal Center

Due to the influx of animals, animal care volunteers are urgently needed during the day on Fridays (7am-5pm) for a minimum of 6 months. The Center is also in need of transport drivers to pick up and drive rescued patients from our Monterey Bay Operations facility in Moss Landing to our main hospital in Sausalito for rehabilitation. Due to the urgent need of these specific shifts, Center staff will provide all necessary training to new volunteers to allow them to make a difference right away. If members of the public are interested in one of these two critical volunteer roles, they should email our volunteer team at volunteer@tmmc.org for more information on how we can expedite the volunteer onboarding process for these roles.

An animal care volunteer at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA, pulls up fish mash formula in a syringe to tube-feed young elephant seal and sea lion pups. The Center has nearly 100 patients onsite that volunteer crews and veterinary staff are helping to rehabilitate daily. Credit Gina Sanfilippo © The Marine Mammal Center

The Center has also brought back the popular Fish Kitchen Support volunteer opportunity, where members of the public can volunteer in our fish kitchen with no advanced training and no long-term commitment required. Interested persons can sign up online here.

New volunteers have the opportunity to be part of a strong community that makes up the backbone of the Center’s operations. Your support is critical to help give these animals a second chance in the wild!

Phil Warren, a rescue volunteer at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA, searches the Point Reyes National Seashore coastline for a stranded animal. The Center is looking for volunteers with a wide range of skills to help fill key shifts throughout the week including rescue transport drivers. To learn more and sign up please visit: http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/Get-Involved/volunteer/Photo © The Marine Mammal Center

ABOUT THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER:

At the Marine Mammal Center, we are guided and inspired by a shared vision of a healthy ocean for marine mammals and humans alike. Our mission is to advance global ocean conservation through marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation, scientific research, and education. Since 1975, the Center has been headquartered in the Marin Headlands, Sausalito, Calif., within the Golden Gate National Parks and has rescued and treated more than 20,000 marine mammals. In 2014, the Center opened Ke Kai Ola, a hospital for the rehabilitation of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. For more information, please visit http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/.