Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/sea-lion-rescue/

It’s not every day you see a sea lion while driving on the freeway, but one sea lion managed to weave through traffic and make his way across a busy San Diego Freeway in January.

Witnesses said the sea lion was on the eastbound 94 freeway near Interstate 805. Once he crossed from a shoulder to a median, several good Samaritans helped to bring him to safety and secure him until rescuers arrived.

Once the SeaWorld San Diego Rescue Team arrived on scene, they used nets to stop the 200-pound marine mammal and then transported him by truck to their rescue center to be evaluated.

At the center, a team of vets spent weeks rehabilitating him and nursing him back to health to make sure he could be released back into his habitat.

After a full month of rehabilitation, he was recently deemed healthy and was approved to live on his own again. Rescuers released him back into the Pacific Ocean, along with two other sea lions who had also been rehabilitated.

Video shows the sea lions being transported to the ocean in containers on a small boat before jumping off the side of the boat back into the water.

The freeway is four miles from San Diego Bay, so it’s unclear how the sea lion was able to travel so far into one of the city’s denser communities. But this isn’t the first time SeaWorld has rescued sea lions from strange places. One was rescued near San Diego International Airport, while another was at Naval Base Point Loma, and a third one on a boardwalk.

Watch the rescue and release in the video below:

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog