Overview

Since 1984, The Whale Rescue Team's mission has been to replace an inadequate system of marine care with an efficient and effective system giving every animal the best possible chance for survival. In 1998, the Whale Rescue Team was granted authorization by the City of Los Angeles and the City of Santa Monica to contribute its expertise in solving this problem. The Whale Rescue Team currently serves as primary responder for all marine mammals and sea birds at Marina del Rey, Palos Verdes, Venice, Santa Monica, San Pedro, Will Rogers Beach, Torrance, Royal Palms, Redondo, White’s Point, Cabrillo, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach. We make sure these animals receive prompt, professional response and assistance.

Providing response and rescue services is the first part of Whale Rescue Team's plan to provide complete care for marine mammals and sea birds along the California coast. Due to a lack of care facilities in Southern California many marine mammals are forced to be left on the beach starving, or are ordered euthanized by federal authorities. The Whale Rescue Team is working to construct and operate an auxiliary rehabilitation/educational center in the Los Angeles area that would serve marine mammals and sea birds throughout LA County.

The Whale Rescue Team believes that capturing and confining marine mammals for facilities like Sea World is cruel and must end. We actively participate in anti-capture campaigns. We also assisted in the production of "A FALL FROM FREEDOM", a powerful video documentary exposing 30 years of the dark side of places like Sea World. "A FALL FROM FREEDOM" is at the heart of our on-going campaign to expose the truth about capturing and confining dolphins and whales and just how far the captive display industry, headed by Sea World and its owner Anheser-Busch, will go to obtain marine mammals.

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Victory For Marine Mammals In Los Angeles County

July 25,2007 – After a decade of efforts by Marine Animal Rescue (MAR) (formerly Whale Rescue Team), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has now agreed that there is a need, and has decided to authorize, a second marine mammal care facility in Los Angeles County.

In a letter addressed to Peter Wallerstein of Friends of Animals, Marine Animal Rescue the NMFS states, “Thank you for your letter requesting that NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service consider
authorizing a second facility to rehabilitate stranded marine mammals in Los Angeles County". Further, “Within the next few months, the NMFS-SWR will post a message on the MARMAM list server announcing that we will be accepting applications for the construction of a second rehabilitation facility in Los Angeles County.”

Each year during the spring, many sea lions suffering from domoic acid poisoning are left on the beach due to the limited capacity at Fort McArthur Marine Mammal Care Center, Los Angeles County’s only marine care center. A second facility would ease the strain on the Fort McArthur Center and allow a more rapid critical care for sick or injured animals throughout the county.

MAR’s team of marine mammal specialists has already gathered veterinarians, marine biologists, and business professionals to complete the federal application. MAR continues to receive a great deal
of support from local government officials. In 2005, Supervisor Don Knabe directed the Beaches and Harbors department to locate properties suitable for a second marine care facility. Such a piece of property was located for MAR to construct and operate a second marine care facility. The property is strategically situated to maximize prompt care of sick or injured animals.

MAR’s twenty year proven track record of responding to sick or injured marine mammals in LA County, its ability to encourage public participation, plus its solid proposal uniting veterinarians, marine life professionals, construction companies and businesses, makes it the perfect candidate to receive this authorization.

Many thanks are expressed to NMFS Regional Director, Mr. Rodney McInnis for his thorough appraisal of the situation and his vision in authorizing a second marine mammal care facility in Los Angeles County.

Most importantly, no matter who receives this authorization, the sick, injured or orphaned marine mammals in Los Angeles County will benefit for decades to come. The days of a single over-crowded marine care facility that forces rescuers to leave suffering animals on the beach will soon be history.

This is a major victory for marine wildlife in Los Angeles County.

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Honors for Whale Rescue Team

On October 22, 2002, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors honored Peter Wallerstein and The Whale Rescue Team for "OUTSTANDING EFFORTS AND CONTINUED SUPPORT TO THE COUNTY AND TO THE MARINE MAMMALS."

Photo of Whale Rescue Team being honored.

Left-to-right Chief Mike Frazier, LA County Lifeguards, Captain Kurt Thomas, LA County Lifeguards, Supervisor Don Knabe, Peter Wallerstein, Marcia Mayeda, Director, LA County Animal Care and Control, Assistant Chief Russ Walker, LA County Lifeguards and Kaye Michelson, LA County Animal Care and Control.

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Rescue Program

Photo 1 This common dolphin is stabilized and then rescued by the Whale Rescue Team. Months later the dolphin was successfully released back into the ocean.

Photo 2 This dolphin mother and her young lie stranded on Hermosa beach.

Photo 3 After spending hours stranded on the beach the mother dolphin above comes alive in the arms of a Whale Rescue Team member. Both mother and baby were successfully returned to the ocean.

Photo 4 Hundreds of seals and sea lions have suffered wounds caused by gill nets just as this California sea lion has. But this sea lion was luckier than most. This one was rescued by the Whale Rescue Team.

Prior to the formation of the Whale Rescue Team, beach communities throughout Los Angeles County lacked an adequate system for reporting distressed marine mammals which led to slow response times to calls or many times the distress calls went unanswered. Along with this flawed system of reporting, animal control agencies were responsible for responding to marine animal incidents. Some cities and individual officers did the best they could. But most animal control officers received no training in making accurate evaluations which led to many marine mammals being removed from the beach unnecessarily. Also, the officers utilized rescue equipment that was designed to capture dogs and cats. The National Marine Fisheries Service, offered no assistance to the local agencies and yet expected the officers to conduct the highly specialized rescues of marine mammals.

To acquire the appropriate authorization for response and rescues of marine animals the Whale Rescue Team approached beach cities in Los Angeles County and offered our expertise in the prompt, professional response, rescue and transportation of whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions and sea birds on land and at sea. The City of Los Angeles and the City of Santa Monica were to first to unanimously except our offer for the services for one dollar per year. To ensure that marine animals received our assistance we wanted to give the cities a deal they couldn't reject or waste time discussing. We needed to get in there and start overhauling the seriously flawed system. To ensure every animal that needed assistance received prompt response the Whale Rescue Team established a live operator 24 hour toll free hotline number. The hotline has been so successful it has been designated as the official number to report marine animal concerns. The hotline number is currently being used by the United States Coast Guard, The Los Angeles County Lifeguards, the Los Angeles Police and Fire Departments, boaters and the general public. Usually, within 30 minutes of receiving a call a trained Whale Rescue Team volunteer arrives on site, secures the area and evaluates the animal to determine what, if any, action should be taken to assist and protect both the animal and the public. If a rescue is determined to be necessary, it is conducted utilizing Whale Rescue Team's four wheel drive pickup truck equipped with all the necessary rescue equipment consisting of whale and dolphin stretchers, pinniped hearding boards, custom rescue nets, pinniped transport carriers, foam, water and other specialized equipment. All of Whale Rescue Teams equipment was obtained by donations from our individual supporters and foundations. If the initial evaluation determines that the animal does not require assistance, our specially designed warning signs are posted around the animal and Whale Rescue Team volunteers ensure that it is left undisturbed by the public. Volunteers also distribute informational brochures to the surrounding crowds that explain the natural habits of marine mammals, ensuring the public, that leaving the animal undisturbed is the best thing for the animal. The Whale Rescue Team conducts training sessions for anyone interested in becoming a volunteer and learning marine animal rescue techniques. Previous training sessions have attracted local residents, lifeguards, animal control officers and police officers. Only trained volunteers are allowed to come in contact with the animals.

To meet monthly expenses of fuel, boat and truck maintenance and payments, rescue equipment repair and replacement, communications along with insurance for the vehicles and our $1 million insurance policy relieving the cities from any liability during Whale Rescue Team's services, requires consistent and generous support from sponsors and members. We hope you will consider joining the Team and being an important part of Whale Rescue Teams efforts to protect and rescue marine animals.

Whale Rescue Team truck

Utilizing proper equipment ensures the safest possible rescues for the animals and for the rescuers. WRT's 4WD rescue vehicle enables WRT volunteers to respond to marine wildlife problems even in hard to access, deep sand situations. Equipped with rescue and transportation gear for whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions and sea birds, the rescue truck offers WRT volunteers their choice of specially designed equipment to meet the variety of challenges encountered during marine wildlife rescues.

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Rehabilitation Center

Rehabilitation Center Photographs Photo top This young sea lion did not survive the 48 hour "hands off" requirement imposed by the Federal government during El Niño seasons. The sea lion died of starvation minutes before a rescue attempt was allowed.

Photo bottom This harbor seal named Lucky was protected by Whale Rescue Team volunteers for days until it learned to fend for itself. Two years later, Lucky remains in the same area and makes daily visits to surfers, kayakers and beach goers.

Whale Rescue Team volunteers have successfully transformed marine wildlife response, rescue and transportation services in Los Angeles County to be one of the best in the Nation. The next phase of Whale Rescue Team’s plan is to address a very significant problem, the lack of adequate care facilities for marine mammals in our community. The need for expanded care facilities is quit evident and was brought to the forefront in the spring of 2002 when on a daily basis, marine rescuers were forced to leave dozens of California sea lions on the beach to endure prolonged suffering and death, solely due to there not being any place to transport pregnant sea lions for the desperately
needed care they required.

The serious flaws in the “stranding network” in no way reflect the dedication and tireless efforts of the many volunteers that work at California’s marine care facilities. WRT volunteers respect their work and are very grateful for their efforts.

No Dolphin Rehabilitation Facility
Currently, there is only one place in Southern California with the resources to rehabilitate dolphins. This facility, Sea World in San Diego is a commercial marine park that has a restrictive policy on accepting sick, wild dolphins and whales. Sea World will refuse any whale over 20 feet in length. Marine rescuers are told by the National Marine Fisheries Service that if a whale larger than 20 feet strands along the Southern California coastline, rescuers must tow the whale back out to sea and make no attempt to rescue the whale. The Southern California marine care network should not have to depend on just one facility, without there being an alternative. If Sea World will not accept the sick dolphins or whales another option utilized by the “stranding network” has been euthanasia. The Southern California community can and should do better than that. Marine rescuers in Los Angeles County must first take stranded dolphins to a kiddy pool in Laguna Beach. If the animal survives the night, it then might go to Sea World. The transportation time from Los Angeles County to Laguna Beach is enough to kill an already distressed dolphin. It certainly adds tremendous stress. It’s perplexing why, not even a kiddy pool has been available in our community. The good folks at Friends of the Sea Lion do very good work. But as a caring community we can and should do
better.

No 24-hour Marine Mammal Care in Los Angeles County
The Center will also provide after-hours emergency care for seals and sea lions. Fort MacArthur Marie Mammal Care Center, in San Pedro, closes at night and does not provide an after-hours staff, leaving rescuers no place to bring sick seals or sea lions that are in serious need of immediate supportive care.

Suffering Animals Sentenced to Die on the Beach
During the Spring of 2002, Los Angeles County residents were made aware of the fact that hundreds of sea lions were washing up on beaches suffering from the effects of Domoic acid poisoning. Fort McArthur was consistently filled to capacity. This triggered an immediate response from the federal government: all affected animals were to remain on the beach for a 48-hour period, or the animals must be comatose prior to emergency intervention.

For a Sea Lion Pup It’s Euthanasia or a Life on Display
Another issue that must be addressed is that Marine Mammal Care Centers in Southern California make no attempt to rehabilitate California sea lion pups. Pups whose mothers are not nursing them and who don’t go to a commercial marine park or an aquarium, are left to starve or are euthanized. It’s unacceptable that the pups, some of whom are strong and healthy, are not given even the slightest chance to be rehabilitated and released back into the wild. The Whale Rescue Team believes that if there was a facility available to ease the stress on the current marine care facilities when they’re at full capacity, that resources might then be available to try to save some of the pups.

Site for Center Found
The Whale Rescue Team has plans to develop an Auxiliary Marine Mammal Center somewhere in the West Los Angeles area. The primary purpose of Center will be to provide long-term care for injured or sick dolphins. The Center shall also serve an auxiliary, after-hours facility providing emergency, supportive care for seals and sea lions. This planned facility will also have the ability to open in case of a crisis event, such as another Domoic acid outbreak, or in the event of a catastrophic oil spill in the Southern California area. This much needed facility is supported a vast majority of the public along with many private and governmental agencies. However, a small minority is currently mounting a campaign to stop the development of this planned facility that could aid many animals who otherwise would perish if things remained as status quo.

In 2003, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors directed the Los Angeles County Beaches and Harbor Department to see if there was property in the County suitable for WRT to construct and operate an after hours care center for marine mammals. After a 30 day study, the County informed WRT that they found 2 suitable sites for our planned facility, but due to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) informing County officials that NMFS” would never approve this facility”, the County said, “at this time, they could not lease WRT any property”. We were also advised by County officials that the Director of the San Pedro Marine Care Center along with Sea World wrote letters of opposition to the planned expansion. But, the County left the door open! County officials did confide in WRT their dismay about the attitude of those few that are in opposition of such an important addition to our community. It’s too bad that commercial interest’s or people’s ego are the only things standing in the way of providing much needed critical care for injured or orphaned marine mammals in our community. We are excited and extremely motivated about the potential sites noted in the study. We fully understand that change does not happen overnight. It took many years for the WRT to receive authorization to provide our now highly regarded rescue services, those same services that those opposed to WRT’s plans to expand marine mammal care in our community thought our community did not need!

This isn’t about what’s best for the Whale Rescue Team or any other organization or marine facility. It’s about what’s best for the animals. The expansion of marine care facilities in Southern California
will happen. Maybe not in the next couple of years, but it will happen. Because, there is a real need and a great demand from the vast majority of the public who wish to see that every injured of orphaned marine mammal receive the best possible care available.

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Anti-Capture Program

Anti-Capture Program Photographs

Photo top A 1000 people joined The Whale Rescue Team and the cast of Full House - Peter Horton, Richard Donner, Lauren Shuler-Donner, Rue McLanahan and Chevy Chase protesting the Shedd Aquarium's dolphin capture.

Photo bottom The Shedd Aquarium kept the three dolphins they captured in 1993 in this shallow tank for what they called "acclimation." The dolphins, whose distress calls could be heard at night, were starved until they would eat dead fish thrown in by the trainers. 15 months later, the male dolphin was found dead at the bottom of the tank at the Shedd Aquarium.

The Whale Rescue Team is strongly against the capturing and confining of marine mammals by a the influential captive display industry headed by Sea World and its owner Anheuser-Busch. We actively work to prevent captures and educate the public about the truth of this barbaric industry. Dolphins and whales are violently captured from the wild for the captive display industry. Many will die during the capture and little is known the effect the captures have on the wild dolphins pod, or family. After a dolphin is captured it goes through what the "industry" calls acclimation. What this is, the starvation of the animals until they'll take dead fish from the "trainers". If they survive acclimation, they'll be confined in man-made tanks for the rest of their shortened, stressed lives performing for dead fish filled with antibiotics and ulcer medicine.

The following effectively explains why Whale Rescue Team opposes the capture and holding of whales and dolphins by corporations like Sea World. These are excerpts from a letter written by the Washington Secretary of State, Ralph Munro. Mr. Munro clearly does not believe that Sea World can match the quality of life offered to orcas in their natural habitat.

"Ocean-dwelling killer whales virtually never cease swimming, 24 hours a days. They typically dive to several hundred feet repeatedly. Even when they rest, they generally continue swimming slowly in pod formation. Their physical capabilities have evolved over tens of millions of years to achieve these feats of athletic strength and stamina. To confine such an animal to a relatively minute, featureless environment in which the only way to get exercise is to swim in tiny circles and do tricks, clearly depresses the animal, physically and mentally, and leads to diminished metabolic strength and a compromised immune system, despite the administration of antibiotics, vitamins, and anti-depressant drugs. Hence, the many deaths caused by opportunistic infections. Captive whales must survive in a void of stimulation and challenge, when compared to the lives of free-ranging whales. The inclusion of stimulation and challenge, when compared to the lives of free-ranging whales. The inclusion of stimulation by humans clearly does not provide a level of interest and challenge comparable to what they experience in an ocean habitat. The unceasing panorama of elements in the marine world -- from benthiccontours and countless life forms, storms and tidal currents, to the myriad of other aspects -- ocean habitat provides an ever-changing world of experience that is totally lacking in any aquarium. Given the amount of cerebral cortex they possess, it is not difficult to assume that whales have a mental life, that they feel emotions, and normally respond to stimulation as well as to one another, and that the actual marine habitat is a far more interesting, challenging, and viable place for them to be than in any captive situation.

But perhaps most traumatic and devastating to these very social animals is being ripped from the fabric of their multi-generational family networks. Orca societies have evolved over hundreds of thousands of generations into tightly bonded and linguistically mediated pods and communities, providing the security of membership in a cohesive extended family. Their communication is based on a truly extraordinary system of sonar-like transmissions that reflect the orca's surroundings and emotions as well as his intended message.

These family networks -- the community of the pod that is the fabric of their life, simply cannot be duplicated in a concrete tank."

Read all about the 1993 Shedd Campaign HERE!

One of our proudest accomplishments has been our work on the production and distribution of the powerful documentary "A FALL FROM FREEDOM." Filmmaker Stan Minsaian created this hard hitting documentary exposing the dark side of the captive display industry led by Sea World and its owner Anheuser-Busch. Capture footage of Orca and beluga whales, bottlenose dolphins and other graphic footage never seen by the public before the release of this video exposes just how far the captive display industry will go to obtain dolphins and whales. A FALL FROM FREEDOM also talks about the quality of life for the animals that are in captivity."

How you can help:

Order a copy of 'A FALL FROM FREEDOM" DVD. Invite friends and neighbors over to your home for a viewing. Let your son or daughter take "A FALL FROM FREEDOM" to school. CAUTION THERE IS GRAPHIC FOOTAGE IN THIS VIDEO. Adults should watch "A FALL FROM FREEDOM" before showing it to children.

SeaWorld is owned by Anheuser-Busch, Inc. You can write to them at Anheuser-Busch, Inc., One Busch Place, St. Louis, MO 63118. Additionally you can call the company at 1-800-342-5283. Inform them that as long as SeaWorld has captive marine mammals, you won't purchase products like Budweiser and Michelob. Ask that the capturing of whales and dolphins ends throughout the world. Encourage your friends and family to avoid amusement parks that have captive marine mammals.