Pacific Marine Mammal Center

What the center does

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center rescues, treats and releases stranded seals and sea lions from its base on Laguna Canyon Road. The center describes itself as a nonprofit and says its mission is ocean stewardship and conservation through animal rescue, rehabilitation, research and education.

The center says it began as Friends of the Sea Lion in 1971 with three volunteers, cared for animals at first at a private home under a state permit, and took over a barn in Laguna Beach in 1976 after the SPCA moved out. It calls itself the first marine mammal rehabilitation facility in California.

Visiting

The public area is the Bob Barker Visitor Yard. The center lists it as open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. It may close on other days for weather and posts those closures on social media.

General admission is free, and the center says donations are highly encouraged. It runs a voluntary reservation system and strongly encourages reservations, though it does not require them. Free tours are available for small groups, and groups of 10 or more should follow the center’s group-visit link.

The address is 20612 Laguna Canyon Road, and the phone number is 949-494-3050. Parking is free but limited in a gravel lot on site; if it is full, metered parking runs along Laguna Canyon Road. The center says to look for the red barn. The center sits in the Laguna Canyon area. The parking guide covers town lots, and the getting around guide covers the trolley.

Service animals are allowed and must be harnessed, leashed or tethered unless that interferes with their work or the person cannot use those devices. Other pets are not allowed on the property. For questions about strollers or accessibility, call 949-494-3050.

What you see

The center says a visit lets you learn about marine mammals and ocean health, talk to volunteer docents, use interactive displays, see the rehabilitation pools, learn about water reclamation and visit the gift shop. Its education docents greet the public in the visitor yard and tell patients’ stories.

The patients are mostly California sea lions, northern elephant seals, northern fur seals and Pacific harbor seals. The center’s page on a patient’s journey lists California sea lions, northern elephant seals and harbor seals as the most common. It explains that seals and sea lions often rest on the beach and do not always need help, and that staff are trained to spot problems such as infection, malnutrition, pneumonia and entanglement in gill nets. Most arrive dehydrated, so staff tube-feed a blended fish formula and switch animals to whole fish once they are stable. Animals are released after they reach a healthy weight and compete for food, each with a color-coded tag. The home page also mentions live webcams of patients.

Programs and volunteering

The center runs distance learning with live chats, videos and activities, a community outreach program that brings staff presentations to groups, school programs that include a life-size inflatable gray whale named Winston, and summer programs with behind-the-scenes time with the animal care team. It also lists memberships and an Ocean Club for women in Orange County focused on ocean conservation.

Volunteer roles include visitor yard greeters, gift shop and outreach volunteers, education docents, and animal care volunteers, who prepare food, feed and weigh patients, clean enclosures and pools, and help with rescues and releases. Most positions require volunteers to be 18 or older. Junior Docent and Junior Outreach Assistant roles are for ages 15 to 17. You apply through the forms on the center’s volunteer page.

If you find a stranded animal

Do not approach it. NOAA Fisheries says to call the West Coast Region Stranding Hotline at (866) 767-6114 and lists the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, at (949) 494-3050, as the Orange County contact for live and dead animals. NOAA’s national reporting page says to keep people and pets at least 50 yards, or 150 feet, from the animal; its West Coast stranding page, which covers California, asks for at least 100 yards.

The center says seals and sea lions often come ashore to rest, so a resting animal is not always in trouble. For wildlife you can watch from the coast, see whale watching, and for the rules that protect the shoreline, see marine reserves.