Just off the Golden Gate Bridge, resting in the Marin Headlands of Sausalito, is the newly rebuilt Marine Mammal Center. The facility, which combines a hospital, visitor education center, and marine mammal rehab center, is getting warmed up just in time for pup season. The center is prepared to see a large number of sick, injured, and stranded mammals coming in.

Today, the newly born building is tranquil aside from the splashing and belly-flopping of the few patients on site. Although they aren't necessarily warm and cuddly, they are like cute dogs of the sea. Upon hearing the clicking of a photographer's lens, these seals and sea lions seem to start striking their poses. Although the center is quiet and nearly empty, there seems to be anticipation as well as excitement in the air.

Jim Oswald, the communications manager for the center, estimates that they could see around sixty animals in the next few months, compared to their current nine. The organization's territory reaches from Mendocino County to San Luis Obispo County, and with only forty-five paid staff members, the center is almost entirely dependent upon volunteers. This means that while they are waiting for mammals of the marine variety, they hope to get mammals of the human variety to volunteer.

The Harbor Seal Hospital is the only original building that will remain intact and in use. "This is one of the more dangerous aspects," says Oswald, "and we sort of pioneered it, so to speak." The center sometimes has visiting doctors and researchers from around the world. With brand new facilities, everything from surgery to feeding will run more smoothly and efficiently.

The freshly poured concrete strikes a drastic contrast to the lush green hillsides of Fort Cronkite. In a few months, visitors will be standing on the second-floor viewing platform, looking down at fences that surround small pools of water that are individually designed for different species of seals and sea lions. The adjacent solar panels will help conserve energy as well as provide shade for the area where the patients will spend a majority of their time recovering.

In addition to conserving water and energy, the new location will give visitors as well as students improved access and education. The new design allows visitors to see into the patient chart room, which is where volunteers gather to get organized and assigned. Visitors even have access to a viewing window over the necropsy room, and with the right timing, could witness an exam. Visitors will be able to observe nearly every aspect of the rehabilitation process, including the making of the elusive herring milkshake, which looks a little like vomit.

"The reality is that 50 percent of the patients don't live. Which is why we discovered, years after this started, that education is so important. If the animals are released back into a dirty ocean, they don't get rehabilitated, which means they come back," says Oswald. The center often sees animals entangled in trash or with gunshot wounds. But the biggest problem a majority of patients face is malnutrition.

People who see a sick, injured or even dead marine animal are urged to contact the center, which you can now do through their website. Oswald mentions that the reporting party even has the opportunity to name the patient, and in the past the names have had themes such as sports teams or drinks.

The Marine Mammal Center, which opened in 1975, has since rescued and rehabilitated around twelve thousand marine mammals. Oswald explains that the old buildings were shipping freight containers, so the new higher-quality buildings will be an improvement to the staff, volunteers, and patients. Visitors were once greeted at a guard booth with pamphlets and seated at picnic tables, and that would be the extent of their education. Now, visitors will be greeted at the entrance by an interactive, life-sized sea lion model. Ten or twenty thousand students visit every year, and in the new facilities there will be educational panels in every area, explaining nearly every step of the rehab process. According to Oswald, 95 percent of the organization's income is from private donations, and only a small percentage comes from grants. Because of this, the fundraising and planning process was spread out over nearly a decade.

Oswald adds, "We could not do what we do without volunteers. Last year they put in seventy-five thousand hours. Our volunteers are members, donors, lawyers and doctors. They are students to retired and everything in between."

The location and design are so serene that any injured or sick marine mammal will feel lucky to find themselves recovering in this location. Once the water quality is just right and the June deadline nears, current patients will make the move into their new pools. More volunteers and students will fill the center and more marine mammals will heal as well as return to the ocean.

People interested in volunteering for the Marine Mammal Center can call 415-289-7374 or visit the website: www.marinemammalcenter.org.