Following months of rehabilitation at SeaWorld Orlando, SeaWorld’s Animal Rescue Team returned Mardi, a juvenile female manatee, back into the waters near Jacksonville, Fla.

This morning SeaWorld Orlando’s animal care team traveled to Satellite Beach, Fla., a warm-water site, to release two manatees into a side canal off of the Banana River. Both animals were rescued and transported to SeaWorld Orlando last winter by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), who was also on-site assisting with today’s release.

In July of 1989, a young orphaned manatee was rescued near Daytona Beach, FL and brought to SeaWorld’s Manatee Rehabilitation Facility. Weighing only 42 pounds, this tiny calf was named Lil Joe. After hands-on care, Lil Joe would grow to become a special, not-so-little manatee.

Earlier this week, SeaWorld released two manatees to Blue Spring State Park in Florida.

When the SeaWorld team returns a manatee to the wild -- as they did on Feb. 9 in North Palm Beach, Fla. -- what do they do? What does it take?

Turns out the process involves dozens of people with different backgrounds and it's a bit more complicated than you'd think. And each step works to help save manatees in the wild.

SeaWorld Orlando’s rehabilitation team is now caring for its fifth and sixth rescued, cold-stressed manatees of 2011. Both manatees were brought to the park by the Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

***UPDATE December 30, 2010*** Added Photos Below