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.

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).

SeaWorld Animal Care Specialists picked up precious cargo at Orlando International Airport on Tuesday, November 2. It was Holly, a manatee SeaWorld cared for 15 years ago when she was rescued from a water intake at the Port St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant.

A panoramic shot of KARS Park as the team releases "Hitchcock"

Thursday, September 30, 2010 – SeaWorld Orlando’s animal rescue team returned to the wild a manatee named Hitchcock. Manatees are an endangered, slow-moving, marine mammal sometimes known as sea cows and are found in many of Florida’s waterways.