Original subtitles

Canada's Pacific Coast...

♪

A dedicated veterinary team mission to save a sea lion caught in tic noose.

Take it, take it.

Oh, oh, there she goes.

She's right off the front there, Marty!

I got her.

In the Rescue Centre, a seal les to survive.

♪

It's going.

While at the ouver Aquarium,

a penguin fi deadly infection.

We'll just listen to lungs.

And a baby sea battles the odds... To find a new family.

Saving animals, and keeping them wild,

that's the missionMarine Mammal Rescue Centre.

♪

It's midsummer off the rugged coast of British Columbia.

♪

The vet team from the Mari Mammal Rescue Centre

is in a race against time.

♪

They're searching sea lion in distress. So,

looking at the animals the very top of the rock,

starting from our side,

there's an afacing this way.

They're re to a report from

a whale watching vessel.

The crew of a sea lion with

something wr around its neck.

The an last seen here,

on Mitlenatch Island,

a rocky outc a half a mile wide between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland.

♪

The team's motto is, "every animal counts."

If there's a mammal in trouble,

they'll do whate it takes to save it.

Oh, it's right on the edge, yeah.

Just one I can't see a neck on.

Yeah.

Leading the team is

Dr. Marty Haulena.

What we heard is this adult female Steller sea lion

has had a pretty serious neck entanglement, very deep.

Out here on the west coast,

we've plastic pollution,

and the most common piece of garbage that causes

this kind of entanglement in sea lions is

a plastic packing strap.

Sea lions can become while swimming

through floating debris.

But for some, that's only the beginning.

Stellers can grow 55 pounds to over

1300 pounds in just a few years.

A sea lion that pick neck entanglement

when it's small can slowly strangle as it grows.

♪

I've got no eyes on the target on this side yet.

So far, there's no sign animal.

Let's go.

Getting a

little bit worried.

The day's slowly moving on with no sighting as yet.

There 25,000 Steller sea lions in

British Columbia that gather on haul-outs like this one...

Resting places when

hunting

for fish, squid, or octopus.

♪

Elsewhere inNorth Pacific,

Stellers are endangemaking this

healthy population allthe more precious.

To give the team an edgein spotting the target,

they've brought in

et weapon.

Alright, let's send the drone out.

♪

The drone offers a bird' eye view of the groups

on land, and in the water.

Just, are you able to look to see if there's any

bunches of animals t are behind what we can see?

I can't see any bunc I can see a couple

singular animals from my vantage right now.

I think we'll wait for now just 'cause

there's only a few, but...

There's an animal that's just got her head poking out

and it just looked like she had a ring.

No, that's her. That's her, I got her.

I got her.

Standby.

- Right there. - Yeah.

Just lifted her and I just saw it flash.

- She just popped her head up. - Yeah.

- Check. - Check.

Want to let you know that we have eyes on the

animal. Awesome, thanks. Yeah, I can see her.

I can see her right there.

Oh, yeah, up on the rock now. Yeah, that's awesome.

They need to tranq sea lion and then

remove the ring around her neck

If they fail, it could

ly cut into

her carotid artery and kill her

Might head over and raft with you.

Thanks, Em, we'll wait for you right here.

With their sea lion

,

The team comes together to

anquilizer,

along with the reversal forafter they've removed the ring.

♪

♪ ♪

Alright, you guys, let's go dart this thing.

Okay, Paul, just nice and slow.

♪ ♪

You got a good shoulder there,

take it, take it, take it.

♪ ♪

Dart in.

- Dart's in, dart's in. - Target's in the water.

Alright, Paul, take us out really slow.

Can you start the timer on my phone, Court?

Sorry, I don't w take my eyes off that spot.

So, once the animal has been darted,

once the dart goes in, we have a long 12 minutes

to wait for that a sufficiently sedated for us.

They can't afford to

lose sight of the sea lion.

If she's under water when the tranquilizer

takes effect, she could drown.

Wait, wait, wait, yep.

I think I have eyes on her right out there,

same as you.

They need at the perfect moment,

and then hold her head ove the surface so she can

breathe while Dr. Marty.

We're at 9 minutes.

♪

It's 11 minutes, we're gonna go.

- Right ahead. - Okay.

It's coming up for the bubbles,

it's looking like a typical anaesthetized animhis cocktailthat we, we use.

We're gonna slowly go, you guys.

♪

Okay, got her.

Ah, I need some help, you guys.

I need some help.

Holding her up requires all hands on deck.

- Watch it. - Someone grab this.

The te weight at over 600 pounds.

We gotta cut her.

Oh, no, there she goes.

It's still on her.

The tranquilizer needs

a little more time

to finish its job.

Right that way...

- Okay, I got her. - Nice.

Somebody hold this.

Alright, let's hold her ther That's good, thanks.

♪

Hey, guess what, everybody...

- That's a disentangle - Woohoo.

Dr. Marty was right: it's a plastic packing strap

used to bind cardboard boxes.

Okay, tag!

- This side, go. - I got the tag.

The team seizes this chancattach tags to her flippers.

They'll identify the sea lion ver examined again,

and offer insight into her

our.

We'll do another one.

I don't think it's a female, this is a male.

- Is it? - Yeah.

That's a male. There we go.

Just let me ha the wound here, you guys.

Just make sure nothing else in there.

This 600-pound male could still

double in size, or more.

The plastic strap would've

ed him.

It's dug deep into his flesh.

But luckily, there's no sign of infection.

Everybody's good, you guys.

This is looking very good.

Okay, let's get the reversal in him.

There you go. Yo you can go right in there.

Quick, quick, quick!

♪

There you go, big fella.

And away he goes!

Oh, there he goes. Hi, bub!

That was so good!

The team made it to this

animal before it was too late.

But entang hundreds of thousands of

marine anima worldwide every year.

At any given moment,

there are an estimated tangled sea lions in these waters.

Packing strap.

To help combat the probl the team attempts as many as

four disentanglements onth,

but that's drop in the ocean.

We've got a lot of p facing our wildlife.

What I love isgiving animals that have

been really affected people a second chance to be

back and part of what was meant to be.

♪

So textbook, I love it!

It's been an exhausting day for everyone But for the Marine escue Centre,

operations like this are st one part

of a much bigger job.

♪

The team's home is in Vancouver,

right next door to the city's busy commercial port.

♪

In since the 1960s,

the Marine M Rescue Centre has

dozens of speciali holding tanks...

And a state-of-the-art

Ah, so just a quick walk around.

Two concerns today, obviously, Ryla, post-surgical.

You guys will notice we did do surgery two days ago.

Lindsaye Ackhurst the manager.

Veterinary technologist,

she's centre for 14 years.

The rescue centre, itself, is quite small,

but we do a lot within that area.

Each year, we rescue and rehabilitate

up to 200 marine mammals.

We've been able to release thousands of marine mammals

back out into the wild.

We've been able to treat Sea otters and

Northern Fur seals, Steller sea lions,

all of those animals are species at risk.

But, our primary species is, of course, Harbour seals.

British Columbiahome to more than

100,000 Harbour seals.

Like the Stellar sea lion, coastal hunters

that f squid, and shellfish.

Right it's pupping season.

Mothers are gi birth all along the coast.

But some of th mothers fall victim

to predators while fishing.

Others are scare their pups on the beach

by people or dogs.

Marine Mammal Rescue Centre, Volunteer Jan speaking,

can I help you? Is it a seal pup?

Okay.

Like clockwork, pups are

popping up everywhere, the public eye.

I've got some from last night and,

it's at Spanish is that right?

Sounds great thanks. Bubye.

Did she mention how

active the animal was?

- Was it awa - She said it was just...

sort of lying there and not doing a whole lot.

And she did send a pin drop map.

Just confirm he's still there.

We'll se somebody down shortly.

- Okay, I'll tell her - Thanks

Thank you.

This morning, Lindsaye and volunteer, Richard

are responding to two reports of pupsin distress

on city beaches.

♪

The first seal, th is actually just standing

within range and keeping an eye on the animal for us.

♪

- Hi. - Hi, guys.

Right down over here, okay.

Thanks so much for sticking around.

Of course.

Oh, dear, muffin.

Hi.

Oh, hi.

We see a lot of animals that are separated from their mothers,

for a variety of different reasons,

whether that's human interaction,

first time mums not knowing what to do.

Or, just basic natural events that are happening.

Seal pups aren't able to feed themselves.

Without their mothers to nurse them,

orphaned pups will die of starvation within days.

That's one rescue down, th one more to go.

Hi, volunteer Jan.

I got a call about the David Lam seal.

Okay.

He said itwest of David Lam Park. And, he's still out, in and out of the water.

Okay, cool. So...

You go noisy one in there!

Really noisy, yeah. Very hungry.

♪

So, if it's gonna be anywhere, it's gonna be down here.

♪

Oh, there he is.

♪

The camouflage on those little guys are amazing.

- - Oh, I know.

I know, muffin.

So, you were just walking down here this morning?

Yeah, around 8 o'clock and,

little guy right there, so...

Okay, love, sorry. I know, you're stressed.

♪

Oh, dear.

- Lots of spirit. - Yeah.

Pretty skinny.

Thank you,

thanks for coming down.

I'm glad you guys are there.

♪

Back at the Mari Mammal Rescue Centre...

♪

The rescued Harbour seal re each placed in

one of the Centre's 70 quarantine tubs.

Like all new arrivals, they are also given names.

Buster...

And Boomer, found at the city park.

At the moment,

Lindsaye is especially worrie

Animals th within this region,

Harbour Seals, specificaare usually 10 to 12 kilos,

so she's half birthweight.

She's 5.7 kilos. She's really tiny.

The guys are just getting her food ready for her right now

so we can give her some electrolytes and then just

let her sit for a because she's had a

pretty stressful 24 hours without her mum.

Boomer's tiny size big concern.

Veterinary Technolog Sion Cahoon,

arrives right aw the pup a checkup.

Next with Boomer, we are gonna do a full physical exam.

♪

Okay, Boomer.

She quickly noti Boomer is, in fact, male.

You're a boy.

Boomer's problems are that he is extremely underweight,

probably dehydrateand he's got a bad eye.

- Left eye looks good. - Okay.

Right eye, he's still got it kind of closed,

so it's really hard to have a good look at it.

Next up, rehydration.

Usually, when these come in, they haven't eaten

or nursed from their mum in quite some time.

First, we're gonna give him some subcutaneous fluids,

which just means a pocket of fluids under the skin

with a little bit of dextrose to give him that extra

kick of glucose and some hydration.

The staff will do they can for Boomer.

But they know from experience,

for rescues his condition,

there are no guarantees.

He is a premature seal pup.

Literally anything can happen.

Whether it's today it's 5 days down the r they're really fragile at this age.

So, while we have our fingers crossed and

we're pretty happy with how he's looking right now,

he's never out of the woods and,

we're just gonna take it day by day with him.

♪

She's got a little bit of obstruction.

Yeah, do you feel he She's skinny.

Yeah, she's still really skinny.

- You're cute.

- Isn't she cute?

Dr. Marty Centre's head veterinarian.

♪

In addition, he provides or the animals

at the nearby

Aquarium.

♪

A huge part of our job is taking care of 64,000

animals that lthe Vancouver Aquarium.

As Head Veterinarian, I'm literally responsible for

the health and welfare thousands of animals.

I've worked at the Vancouver Aquarium for 14 years and,

I, I love it.

Whether it's a frog,

or a sea lion, or a jelly...

Good girl, Sit Let's go see Marty.

Sitka, the Steller sea lion,

is a permanent resident here.

Stellers are smart animals so she's sometimes allowed

to make the roun enrich her life with

new sights and experiences.

♪

- Hi, Sitka. - So, how's Sitka doing?

I see her playing with her fish a little bit more than usual.

Not slurping them quit way she should, normally.

But she came in here, that was nice.

Look at you with your lovey eyes.

You know that Sitka likes to sing?

Yeah, let's sing.

Awoo!

Good girl, Sitka. What song do you want to sing?

Hey, Sitka, what do you think

out the Dr. Marty doll?

Ah, wh doing in the office?

You know it's banned.

A popular item in the uarium gift shop, is less popular namesake.

I mean, the hair is accurate.

Your goatee looks exactly like this.

- But I've got... - Courts, you be the judge.

That's terrifying.

Terrifyingly accurate.

Sitka, what do you think of this?

- Sitka, target. Kiss? - Aw, she's like don't make me do that.

This thing is gross.

- Can you wave bye-b - Bye, Sitky.

By, Sitka!

Thanks for coming in.

How about this one?

Sitka, if you don't destroy the $80,000 mach beside you, that would be very helpful.

Alright, Sitka, thanks for coming in.

See you guys later!

I think the sea lion stomped on it.

That was me. I actually stomped on it.

This doll has little to no respect.

You're dirty, you're stained.

We're out.

♪

Alright, birdies, who's hungry?

Let's go eat.

Unlike the Rescue Centre,

animals here at the Aquarium hai all corners of the world...

Including one of the Aquarium's

most popular attractions,

the African penguins.

Each sports a different

so the staff tell them apart.

♪

Good, Yellow. Good, Orange.

Blue! Come here, buddy.

Lately, Blue seems unwell.

He's strangely inattentive Orange...

and worse,

he's stopped eating.

Come on, mister.

♪

So, we've notihe has not been eating.

Are you hungry? Come on, Blue.

Don't want to eat?

Blue should be e least seven fish a day.

Let's eat.

He's typical really good eater.

He's a bigger bird.

He isn't eating the fish at all.

There is definitely a concern that something

could be going on with him.

Here, Blue, come here, buddy.

Let's go, let's go.

So, we're gonna take Blue over to see Dr. Marty and

get him to take a look and get a checkup and see if

we can find out just exa what's going on with him.

Well, we've been h from the staff that

Blue's just not doing right.

Hey, Blue, how you doing?

What did he weigh this morning?

He was 4.0 kilos this morning,

so he dropped another .2 from last week.

Ah, so he's lost a little bit more weight again?

- Yeah. - Okay.

He's regurgitating up his fish,

he's not keeping them down.

He's looking a little bit more letharg the

other birds, and he's starting to lose a bit of

weight so, it's definitely time to go take a look and

see what going on with Blue.

To do that, they'll have to ve Blue a checkup and

take an x-ray.

Are you okay to anaesthetize?

Yep.

♪

Today, what we're doing is anaesthetizing Blue.

- Got it? - Yeah, okay.

♪

We're just gonna take a whole body radiograph.

I'm just t to figure out what

might be going on with Blue.

♪

This is not the clearest x-ray I've ever seen, Nat.

Um... I actually don't like those lungs.

This abdominal sac shoula little bit further back.

The whole kind of pu system looks a little bit

smaller than I would like.

Blue's organs appe to be compressed,

but the x-ray isn't Dr. Marty what'scausing it.

I think we've gogo to CT and see

what' going on with this animal.

A Computerized Tomography, or CT scan,

will provide a detailed picture of

the penguin's insides.

But th doesn't have the equipment,

so Blue will on a trip to a

specialized animal hospital.

Good boy.

♪

The Rescue Centre is based in Vancouver,

but it's responsmonitoring and arranging

rescues of marine along 15,000 miles

of rugged Pacific coastline.

♪

Dozens of calls come in every day.

Marine Mammal Rescue Centre, volunteer Jan, speaking.

Can I help you?

We got a call from a memof the public around 7 am,

who had heard a otter pup crying all night.

When she got up, looked out her window,

there was a sea otter pup

just right o of her window.

So, she brought it inside.

A float plane collects

the pup from Kyuquot,

and flie 180 miles southeast,

to Vancouver, where Lindsaye picks him up.

♪

- Hi. - Good to see you guys.

♪

When we met the pilot at the float plane,

we noticed the animal was sleeping quite deeply,

so we were obviously

ite concerned.

♪

Oh, hi, buddy.

♪

♪

By the next morn the little sea otter pup

has a cozy bed and a name.

This pJoey Clamchops.

He is a Northern Sea otter pup.

Yeah, it's just like

having a newborn baby.

As soon as Joey wakes up, he'll start vocalizing,

and that is a real indicator that he needs to pee or poop.

So, we'll put him th water and typically that,

you know, kind of cascade some water over top of him

an indicator that he,

he can urinate or defecate.

A little drippy dry.

Joey is now an orphan, leaving the team with

some big shoes to fill.

Sea otter mums do a lot of care.

The pups require a lot of care, 24 hours.

Just keeping their coat dry is

literally a full time job.

♪

You're hungry again? You just had something.

They h little body fat and,

it's their coat that insulates them from,

from the environment. So, even adults,

you'll constantly see them working their coat,

pulling water out of it,

blowing air kind of in between the fibers.

So, without mom, h definitely not have survived.

♪

Joey is adapting to his new home,

but he's picked abit.

He still had a r the umbilical cord attached.

He does go down there and he does suck on that umbilicus,

which we'r trying to redirect.

It's a major no-no that could

sty infection.

Yeah, and it's certainly

not infected now,

but we're gonna continue to monitor

that that doesn't happen.

In addition to Joey, Emily and Lindsaye have

their hands full with the Rescue Centre seal pups.

We've got 60 seals on

site right now and,

I mean, we're feeling it. It's already super busy.

The biggest job is to h the pupshow to eat.

They need to put fat to sustain them

when they're released into the wild and

start hunting

es.

♪

Recent arrival B still severely underweight,

and his eye

,

But he's s signs of giving up.

♪

It's almost feeding time.

Volunteer Richard is eparing Boomer's formula

here in the kitchen.

In the wild, mothers nurse g for four to

six weeks on milk that is 50 percent fat,

which helps the pup s quickly.

That layer of fat will stain the young seal and

keep it warm as it learns to fish on its own.

The Rescue Centre's formula has to do the same job.

♪

There we go go.

♪

Like all newborn Boomer is fed through a tube

to speed up the process.

It's not pleasant, but it stops him from becoming

too at human caregivers.

Once the seals have graduated,

once they've been weaned off the milk formula,

we'll switch them up onto fish right up to release.

We're gonna go through around

30 tons of fish in a season.

After Boomer's feeding,

and ve Dr. Courtney Pace,

arrive to ch Boomer's bad eye.

- - Be nice, be nice.

Boomer's eye is pretty concerning.

The whole is quite white, it's quite opaque.

The cornea It shouldn't be like that.

So, we're gonna try a little bit of a switch up on some meds,

we're gonna extend his anti-inflammatories,

go to systemic antibiotics as well so we're getting things

to that eye both from the outside as well as

from the inside.

He's got a problem, for sure.

Dr staff are worried.

A bad eye could reduce chances of

survival in the wild.

♪

- Troublemaker. - Are you thinking like Cipro?

- Yeah. - Okay.

♪

Next, Dr. Marty he specialized animal hospital

to oversee the CT scan on Blue the penguin.

Hopefully it wil what's compressing

his internaland affecting his appetite.

Hi, Blue.

I'll put the mask on. Someone

se want to hold the bird?

I can hold it.

♪

CT's are an amaz instrument for us.

Instead of just the two views that an x-ray does,

they can go right through a whole animal and we can

reconstruct the whole animal in three dimensions.

♪

This is abnormal.

There is a fluid line in it, and it looks lik pretty thick wall around.

Blue has a massive,

pus-filled abscess

growing inside him.

This is a big mass.

We're looking at something that's about the size of

two golf balls put together.

So, when he swallows a fish,

he just can't dilate

his organs eaccept the fish.

That's his problem.

♪

An abs this can form

around an infection, or worse.

With a mass in a bird,

I always have to think a cancer.

Either way, the abscess

needs to be removed,

or Blue won't survive.

So, would you do the surgery?

I don't think there's

a surgery to be done.

I think you try and take that abscess out and

you're gonna pop things open. It's gonna go everywhere.

The pus contains micro that can cause

deadly infections

ut.

Medication is Blue's only hope.

♪

Good job, Blue.

Yeah, let's get you back home.

♪

What we need to do with Blue is,

number one, get some nutrition into him.

We need for him to be able to eat if we have

any chance at all of trying

to treat this mass.

Back at the Aquarium,

Blue is gr his mate, Orange.

They're inseparable, and the ts to make sure

they get to stay that way.

We need to figure out a way for him to eat

very, very small fish.

So, we're gonna get a whole lot of antibiotics and

an antifungal as well.

We need to be able to administer that medicine to that's a smaller one.

Oh! Good job!

- You want to try another one? - Good job, bubba.

That one's a little bit smaller.

The bite-sized fish are filled with antifungals andantibiotics that will hopefully

shrink the abscess.

Oh, good job!

You did so good.

Alright, let's go home.

I really d get enough of this.

Try to be cuter, would you?

Joey the sea otter has ead of him.

He's still suc his umbilical bump.

So, it's the operating room,

where Dr s

emove it

to prevent an infection.

We'll start masking.

Emily, you're in charge of anesthetic and prep.

Well, hopefully we're not opening the body cavity

so, scrubs are cool.

Sterile gloves, hats and masks for everybody though,

if that's cool. - Yeah.

Alri fuzz ball, you ready?

Your outie is gonna become an innie. - Hopefully. -

Let's get going.

Probably looking at, hopefully,

a relatively minor surgery.

- (cryin - I know.

Couple things I' little bit worried about...

One, that it's a true hernia and we have some of the

abdominal contentrying to come out of the body.

I also worry that the remnant of the umbilicus is

still a little bit viable, so there might be an artery

that's still supplying t and we might get some blood.

But really, we won't be able to tell that until

we actually shave him up a little bit,

clean things up, a really good look and feel. ♪

Heart rate's 160.

Anesthetizing a malike Joey is always tricky.

It could trigger his

natural dive reflex,

which his breathing.

Courtney can you wipe my brow?

Do you want me cutting right now?

Yeah, I think so. Okay...

- You happy? - I'm really happy.

- Do you want any more fur...? - No, you're looking good.

What is this?

Um, it's pedunculated mass.

Mhm.

Like, I feel the skin moving and I don't feelthe body wall moving along with me.

I think we havsolid body wall

that's complete right now.

And I feel lnot actually attached...

- To anything. - Underneath.

But my plan is gonna make a tiny incision

here and one in here, I'm gonna make sure that

it's not attached to anything.

And then it off and close.

I'm gonna go ahead and an incision. EverybodySo,

we're just exploring this little mass that

he has protruding from his abdominal wall.

We're just trying sure it's not attached to

anything too important.

Respiratory rate's two.

Well, couldn't be better.

I think it's just

suture.

With all the abnormal ti from the umbilicus removed,

it's time to

e incision.

When Joey wakes up, the bump his belly will be gone.

Alright, cool. And then I just want to

make sure that we've got breaths here.

But then...

Joey stops breathing.

Oh...

How long's it been since a breath, you guys?

A minute.

Okay, we're just gonna get ready - Side up? - Yeah.

The team trained for this.

Don't, don't grab his bottom. I got his bottom.

- This okay? - Yeah, open it up.

Without oxygen, the otter pup could die

in as little as two minutes.

I need an ambu bag.

Are we sure we're in the lungs?

♪

We're in the lungs. I need the endotracheal tube.

- Okay, I need this.- Come on, kid.

Okay, let's go, let's go.

This is not great.

Do you want to take a listen?

It's been nearly thnce Joey's last breath.

Open his jaw for me.

♪

- Kid... - Okay, let's go, let's go.

♪

Ah, there's the noise.

Good job, everybod Thank you, thank you.

Hey, Joey, welcome back.

Hey, buddy, that was not cool.

That was not cool.

That was not c It was a little bit funny, but not that funny.

What we don't like to

see is them not breathing.

You know, unfortunately, it's a marine mammal and,

that's what happenand we're expecting it.

And, the gang was perfect.

And everyb responded like clockwork.

It was awesome.

A bit slobbery too.

Yeah, just want to mak he's breathing oka A little dopey, but I think we're okay.

Come on, get all feisty.

♪

- (cries-Yeah... yeah.

Ready?

Now it's back to s tub for a bottle.

Joey and gain his strength,

because soon, he'll be moving to his new home

at the Vancouver Aquarium.

I'm so glad the outcome was good.

If the outco been different...

I'd be feeling whole different way.

♪

In the Rescue Centre...

Ooh.

The orphaned pups that were d during the height ofason two months to recover.

They're being weaned off d

taught to eat fish on their own

♪

Many have already been the pools,

where they are learning compete for food.

It's essential before 're released

back into the wild.

We fish school them.

We're essentially teaching t how to eat fish on

theirlnevitably, th eating fish on their own,

in their own time.

♪

Over the pas Boomer's eye healed,

thanks to Dr. Marty.

And he was also moved up to the pools.

Say hello.

And goodbye.

But he had e adjusting.

So, unfortunately, it's a faile by Boomer, this feed.

This is a no-no. He's a seal.

I want him to know that fish comes from the water,

not from my hand.

♪

This morning, Kasey and Kendra

have come to feed Boomer and check on his progress.

Ready?

Today, Boomer ho own in the fight for fish.

Look how fast he is, he's just going along the bottom.

Oh, yeah, look at him go.

He's doing really well.

He's getting j fish as the other seals he's come a long way since...

we first put him in a pool.

I'm really impressed.

Boomer's remarkable progress has convinced manager,

Lindsaye, that ready for the next big step.

Boomer, in his time here, has tripled his weight,

which is great. He's eating fish on his own.

He has been with a few other seals,

so it's time to go home.

At the Vancouver Aquarium...

This is Blue.

- Come on, Blue. - Come on, bubba.

Blue, the penguin, back to see Dr. Marty.

It's been a month since his abscess diagnosis.

It's time to find ou he's responding to the

medicati Dr. Marty prescribed.

- Good boy. - Hey, Blue.

So, today, we want to take another look at Blue,

especially x-rays.

This time, instead of esthetizing Blue and

laying him down pictures,

the team is trying something little different.

- - Yeah.

Okay, good.

So, that needs t right up against the edge.

Alright.

Let's hold it ju bit below the iceberg,

but you have to kind of stand on the side.

I really want to see whether or not that fluid line,

that fluid that's been filling up in one of his air sacs,

responding to treatment and it's getting smaller.

That would bawesome to see.

If the m haven't shrunk the mass,

it could be cancer.

This is a VD, actually, so his...

- Wow, look - No fluid line at all, wow.

No, that who line is almost gone.

And I mean, you certainly still see the

right side is different than the left, but...

so much more air space.

So, yeah, you can see. So, yeah, like, crazy.

Oh, yeah, no, this is so much better.

Just a couple weeks later, really.

- Yeah. - That's good, so good.

- Happy wi - Really happy, yeah. Cool, done! You're done, Blue.

There it is, that fluid has gone way down.

He's got a lot more functional air space

on that right hand side.

That's my boy, Blue.

He's there, it's him again.

- Agreed, yay, blue. - Yeah, I'm good Yay, Blue.

Super, super h with how he looks.

With the mass shrinking,

Blue has room

in his belly for fish again.

And life for the Aquarium's

le

Can get back to normal.

♪

Another patient is

nd.

We have a be that looks amazing.

Joey has recovered is surgery.

He's happy and healthy.

But even so,

e to stay.

In the wild, sea otter pups rmally spend up to

six months with their motherlearning how to survive.

Joey was separ from his mother

during those first few critical weeks.

Without lear survival skills from a

sea otter mom, they're not gonna be able to survive

out there on their own.

Once you have an animal like a sea otter pup that's not

releasable, really the g is to get this animal into

the best home possible.

Let's pu toys in there.

There you go.

He's been transferred to hisnew home at the Aquarium,

where he's about to first swim in a big pool.

Go explore, man. You got a whole pool.

- Look at him go. - Oh, my gosh!

♪

It's Joey's first step in

to his new surroundings.

♪

But to l and happy life here,

Joey will need to be

accepted by the Aquarium's

existing otter clan.

At this point, I'm not sure if Joey actually realizes

that he's a sea otter so, seeing some other otters

between habitats is gonna be kind of a key point in

getting him used to having other adult sea otters around.

The staff release into the enclosure

next to Joey, so he can look at them through the Plexiglas.

There it is.

He appro takes a few curious sniffs,

but quickly retreats.

Males have been known to

oung orphans l It's normal to be a little bit overwhelmed with

these big, rambunctious adult sea otters.

To reduce the risk of a nasty first encounter,

the staf introduce a female

named Tasm Joey's enclosure.

Good, Tasi.

Today's a big day for Jo He's going to meet Tasmina,

one of our other Northern Sea Otters.

Good girl!

Tasmina is our younges otter here at the

Vancouver Aquarium, so she still learning her manners

and learning how t an otter as well.

Joey is stand-offish first.

But when a shrimp snack is into the mix,

he finds a new friend common interest.

This is a really important step forward in Joey

growing up and becoming a real sea otter.

In no time, Joey and Tasmina are play-wrestling from

one end of the p to the other.

This is a re amazing feeling, actually.

It's been a long road for him,

and for the rest of us caring for him.

So, to see him growing u becoming a real sea otter,

and getting along with of the other otters here,

is a really awesome feeling.

♪

It's a special Rescue Centre, too.

♪

Hey, Booms.

Be nice to your friends.

We are releasing Boomer the Harbour Seal.

He's been with us for about 3 months now,

and he's ready to back to the ocean.

He looks fat.

Fat with a "ph".

♪

His ti tripled his weight,

which is great.

♪

This will be Boomer's new home.

It's a secluded cove north of Vancouver.

Here he can wild at his own pace

without pe to distract him.

Flex my arms here.

Boomer's eye is doing and his body weight

is well above our release weight so...

Yeah, well, it took four of us to carry Boomer down to

the beach, so that should say something about

how heavy he is now.

I think he's sitting right in my corner, that's why.

- He is in your corner, fully. - That looks good there.

Like the seals next time.

♪

- Ta-da! - I love it.

- Oh, he turned around. - There you go.

Oh, oh, yeah, so graceful.

Pretty great to be able to release a seal that

you actually picked

up off the beach.

Boomer was, I think, our smallest seal

that we admitted this summer.

Under 6 kilos,

ich is really small.

So, to see h come out, you know,

three, four times his weight...

yo it was really great.

♪

The weight Boomer gained atre will help sustain hi

as he adjusts to the cha of fishing in the wild.

It's a environment for him.

He's been for three months now.

He didn't really want to put his

hind flippers in the water,

which is quite humorous. Or put his head

under water for a little while, but...

- Perfected the banana. - The banana pose.

But yeah, so it's pretty great to, overall,

to see him g there and explore around.

♪

I gotta be I love release days.

They... just...

they just make you feel great.

And, it's, it's the mission.

It's what we do, it's what we strive for with

every patient that we admit.

We want to relea them back to the wild,

we want to get them back out there.

And so, yeah, yeah, matter how man you do it, it's still a great day.

It's still so much fun.

Where's he gonna pop up? It's a fun game we play.

- I'm gonna say that way. - Oh!

Yeah, days like

this still matter.

We've rehabilitated nearly 80 animals this year,

and your getting to seethem go is just,

it never gets old.

♪