Did You Know? Killer whales are the top predator in the ocean; a healthy adult can prey on anything that lives in the sea and has no predators of its own. View More The 7th Anniversary of J.J.'s Rescue:

A Look at SeaWorld® San Diego's Stranded Animal Rehabilitation Program By Fred Jacobs, Busch Entertainment Corporation Before January 11, 1997 the Stranded Animal Rescue Program administered by SeaWorld San Diego was unknown to most of the world. The animal care specialists, veterinarians and medical lab technologists who together rescue and treat more than 500 ill, orphaned or injured animals a year, went about their work with little fanfare or recognition. But seven years ago, all that changed. Shortly after sunrise on January 10, a days-old California gray whale, so young that remnants of her umbilical cord were still intact, was seen in the waters off Marina Del Rey. The helpless calf struggled in the surf for hours until rescuers - Los Angeles Police Department officers, lifeguards, surfers and marine mammal rescue workers - managed to coax her into deeper and calmer water. There she waited while members of the California Marine Mammal Stranding Network and other volunteers coordinated her final rescue. The next morning, the calf was guided onto the sand and wrapped in a fabric sling. The nearly one-ton calf was carried to a waiting truck and driven 100 miles south to SeaWorld in San Diego. Dr. Tom Reidarson, one of SeaWorld's staff veterinarians, said her arrival differed from hundreds of others only in its scale and the extraordinary interest taken in her story by Southern California news media and the people of Los Angeles. "It isn't often that an animal arrives here with a California Highway Patrol escort and TV trucks and helicopters following it," Reidarson said. "It was a pity; to us the situation with this animal looked bleak. We felt almost certain that we would have bad news to report within a few hours of her arrival. We knew almost nothing about caring for an orphaned animal of this size." But the calf surprised SeaWorld staff. It survived the first night, then the first week. Thanks in part to specially made infant formula and an ingenious nursing mechanism developed by SeaWorld curators, veterinarians and keepers, the calf first stabilized and then began to grow. Within the first week, she had gained an astonishing 100 pounds. SeaWorld staff, now more confident of her eventual recovery, named the calf J.J. in honor of the late Judi Jones, a long-time volunteer in the California Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Over the course of her 14-month rehabilitation at SeaWorld, J.J. would grow from 14 feet to 30 feet and gain more than 18,000 pounds. She would be slowly weaned by her caretakers and taught to scour the bottom of her pool for the hundreds of pounds of krill, squid and fish placed there by her keepers each day. J.J. was returned to the sea in March 1998.

"This was a gratifying experience for all of us at SeaWorld. To watch this animal grow and thrive under our care is something none of us will likely ever forget. We'll probably never know, but we all hope she's out there swimming in the Pacific Ocean right now, maybe with her own calf," Reidarson said. By his own estimation, Dr. Reidarson has treated more than 3,500 stranded marine mammals in a veterinary career that spans 16 years. "Most of the animals we see are ill or orphaned seal or sea lion pups. But, unlike a whale or dolphin, a sea lion coming onto the beach isn't necessarily suggestive of a critical health problem. We see animals that have been abandoned by their mothers; they're disoriented, hungry and dehydrated. But, without help, most of these animals will die." Tom Goff, SeaWorld's curator of mammals, said that until J.J., the SeaWorld Stranded Animal Rescue Program wasn't well known outside Southern California. "But recognition isn't really the point. This kind of work is something that we have always viewed to be part of our obligation to the community. We have the facilities, the expertise and the resources to help these animals and it is a role we are proud to play." The park rescues between 100 and 500 seals and sea lions each year. Many are pups, either orphaned by a mother's illness or injury or separated from them at sea. The prognosis for those animals is generally good. Several weeks of rest, food and fluids and they are ready for return to the waters off Southern California. For animals that have come ashore because of serious injuries, the process is complex and the outcome more uncertain. Injured seals and sea lions often require surgery, antibiotics and a lengthy convalescence in SeaWorld's behind-the-scenes medical facility. Deep wounds from shark attacks, entanglement in fishing gear, ingestion of floating debris, and lacerations from boat propellers demand intensive care, sometimes over many weeks and months. Far fewer are beached whales and dolphins, animals that, unlike seal and sea lions, are not equipped to survive for extended periods on land. Those animals, according to Reidarson, often have beached themselves to keep from drowning - a last-ditch bid for survival. Mike Scarpuzzi, SeaWorld San Diego's Vice President of zoological operations, estimates that more than 95 percent of beached whales and dolphins succumb to their illness or injury. "We know a great deal about the challenges these animals face in the wild and the kind of treatment and rehabilitation they respond to," Mike Scarpuzzi, SeaWorld San Diego's Vice President of zoological operations said. "This has clear applications in responding to catastrophic events like oil spills that affect many types of animals, including critically endangered species. It doesn't matter where you work or what your role is. Everyone at SeaWorld is proud of this program," Scarpuzzi said.