This morning SeaWorld's animal rescue team returned manatee Kahula, who weighs close to 900 pounds, to the waters off Merritt Island, Fla. You might have seen Kahula in our rehab pool - the one with the scare around his entire body.

Kahula was just a bit excited to be back home

On March 9th, a team of marine animal rescue experts --from SeaWorld Orlando, NOAA Fisheries Services, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Chicago Zoological Society, Mote Marine Lab, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and University of Florida – worked together to free a dolphin that had been tangled in fishing line in the Ten Thousand Islands area, a chain of islands off the coast of southwest Florida between Cape Romano and Marco Island.

As you prepare to stick to your resolutions for the new year, we wanted to share a few that we learned from our animals at SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica, and

December 10, 2011 was planting day for the campers at Busch Gardens Tampa. For the last three years, as part of the park’s summer camp program, campers have been helping raise hundreds of their own salt marsh plants, all species native to the Tampa Bay estuary.

Today was our biggest event - we had almost 400 students in this school alone. It was Conservation Day and they took it very seriously. There was a parade with a band, cheerleaders, and an overall excitement from the whole community. Prepping juice boxes, snacks and prizes for all the different contests was challenging - we had to make a few trips from the hotel just to get everything there - luckily, it was the closest school we visited.

SeaWorld Orlando is using a custom orthopedic brace to care for once-stranded pilot whale. The whale has scoliosis – or curvature of the spine – that prevents her from swimming normally.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and the Cahoon Elementary Magnet School of Animal Science have teamed up to provide students with a innovative, year-long program that will challenge children to strategize solutions regarding some of our world’s greatest conservation challenges. The project is called “Conservation Matters” and allows children to apply the abstract knowledge of Language Arts, Social Studies, Math and Science directly to real-life conservation challenges.

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Vice President of Veterinary Services, Dr. Chris Dold, was on site at the new Cetacean Rehabiliation Facility at SeaWorld Orlando to provide an update on how the newest resident, once-stranded pilot whale 301, is doing in her new home.