When I was the volunteer Assistant Director at the Santa Barbara Marine Mammal Center I personally rescued over 1,000 seals, sea lions and dolphins. But one of them sticks out in my mind more than any other and that is Squirt, the sea lion that was born blind in both eyes.
I rescued her back in January 2010 and she only weighed 19lbs. She was 6months old and should have weighed over 60lbs at that age. It was clear she was not feeding on her own, so we knew we needed to find a zoo or aquarium that was willing to take her in since we could not release her back to the wild.
Fortunately Moody Gardens in Galveston Texas was willing to take her in, and ever since then she has been thriving! To this day I still have her name tag that we had on her cage stuck to my desk at work as a constant reminder of Squirt.
Now, 7 years later I work for Pacific Seafood and I was in Galveston Texas last weekend to attend the Galveston Shrimp Festival that we sponsor. During that visit I coordinated with the folks at Moody Gardens for me to come visit Squirt! Fortunately I was reunited with Squirt on September 29, 2017! We got to go behind the scenes and I even got to pet her! It was an experience I'll never, ever forget :)
Here is a link to a story I wrote that has more info about her rescue:
http://eatusseafood.com/zoos-aquariums-and-animals-in-captivity/

Jonathan Gonzalez