The Marine Animal Rescue Program (MARP) is the cornerstone of our Ocean Health Initiative.
MARP has successfully rescued, treated, and returned seals, dolphins, porpoises, pilot whales, pygmy sperm whales, sea turtles, and a manatee to their natural habitats – led by only a handful of paid staff and a network of highly-trained volunteers.
The stories of the animals are extraordinary, and the triumph of returning a healthy mammal to the wild is the reason that MARP volunteers dedicated 5,000 hours just last year, and more than 80,000 in the 12 years since MARP’s inception.
Education and Outreach
While we share in the triumph of returning a healthy animal to the wild, our larger success is determined by our ability to convey each animal’s story to the public, to help our communities understand the global implications of their day-to-day actions, and to educate them to take positive actions.
Partnerships
Additionally, data is collected and shared with organizations around the world in an effort to better understand animals that are still very a much a mystery to modern science. MARP volunteers meticulously record:
- The physical condition of animals when rescued
- Day to day observations, both scientific and subjective, as they recover in our facilities
- Tracking data, whenever possible, of the path of animals following their release.
