Historical Timeline

A look back at The Marine Mammal Center over the years.

Historical Timeline

1975	The Marine Mammal Center acquires permits and location on a former Nike Missile site in the Marin Headlands. Seven marine mammals are admitted.
1979	The Center publishes its first scientific paper, Nursing Care of Stranded Northern Elephant Seals.
1982	The Center begins offering education programs to school groups.
1985	Humphrey, a humpback whale, swims 25 miles to Rio Vista in the Sacramento Delta. The Center leads the successful response to return him to the ocean.
1989	California sea lions take of K dock at PIER 39 in San Francisco. The Center collaborates with PIER 39 to begin monitoring and education programs.
1990	Humphrey the whale visits again, getting stuck in the mud at Candlestick Point in San Francisco. The Center cares for him at low tide and frees him at high tide.
1992	El Niño causes many marine mammals to strand. In one day the Center cares for a record 210 patients.
1993	The Marine Mammal Center Interpretive Center and Store opens at PIER 39.
1998	Another El Niño occurs along the West Coast. The Center rescues a record 1,129 animals.
1999	The Geoffrey C. Hughes Harbor Seal Hospital and Sara Hart Kimball Marine Mammal Surgery Center opens.
2001	The Center's Kailua Memorial Rescue & Triage Center in Moss Landing opens.
2004	Chippy, and adult California sea lion, is rescued 60 miles inland causing a major media blitz. A bullet in his head is removed by veterinarians at the Center before he's released. The Center jumps into action as an outbreak of leptospirosis causes over 400 sea lions to strand.
2005	The Marine Mammal Center enters its 30th year by opening the new Morro Bay Rescue and San Luis Obispo Triage Center
2006	A record 34 fur seals are rescued. The Center begins the first full year of construction of its new Sausalito headquarters.
2007	Two injured humpback whales, nicknamed Delta and Dawn, swim 75 miles up the Sacramento Delta River. The Center leads a successful multi agency rescue effort to lead the whales back to the ocean. The Center, in a first, administers antibiotics to the free swimming ill pair.
2008	The Center has rescued and treated more than 13,000 marine mammals and prepares for working in its new headquarters.
2009	The Marine Mammal Center ushers in a new era by opening up its newly rebuilt Sausalito headquarters in June. That same year, volunteers and staff responded to 1,704 marine mammals in distress - a record in the Center's history.

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