Mexico Marine Wildlife Rescue Center

Mexico Marine Wildlife Rescue Center (Centro de Rescate de Fauna Marina de México) is the country’s first and only facility dedicated exclusively to the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of stranded, injured, sick, and entangled marine wildlife. Located in La Paz, Baja California Sur, the center operates in close partnership with the Museo de la Ballena y Ciencias del Mar, a museum devoted to whales and ocean science.

Positioned on the Sea of Cortez, La Paz is home to an extraordinary diversity of marine life, including 35 species of marine mammals and five species of sea turtles. This makes the rescue center ideally situated to respond to emergencies across both the Pacific coast and the Gulf of California. The center’s facilities are equipped to care for seals, sea lions, and sea turtles, and it also maintains a specialized whale disentanglement team trained to intervene in complex rescue operations directly in the wild. These efforts are carried out under the oversight of PROFEPA, Mexico’s environmental protection authority, ensuring that all interventions follow strict legal and ethical guidelines.

Led by Director of Operations Ricky Rebolledo, a marine mammal specialist with over 25 years of experience, the center collaborates with a wide network of local and international organizations, researchers, fishermen, tour operators, and citizen scientists. The Mexico Marine Wildlife Rescue Center is a nonprofit organization, run by a small team of professionals and a dedicated group of volunteers. It relies on public donations and community support to sustain its operations. Visitors to the museum can learn more about the center’s work, and locals, including members of the La Paz cruising fleet, often assist by reporting sightings of stranded animals.