up next on a second look, once it was a missile base, today it's a hospital ready for rescued animals. how the marine mammal center has come to the rescue of those

big and small. welcome to a second look. tonight we visit the marine mammal center and the land it sits on on the marine head lands. they began using it to nurse and nurture marine animals. designers began renovating unused parts of the old nike sight turning one of the 3,000 square foot abandoned into a library and the other into a recycling site. we looked at the nike landscape. >> reporter: the marine head lands rise 1,000 feet above the golden gate. from its rugged ground there can be found vistas of beauty. but what may stir one poetic

ground to the other is the ground suited for san francisco bay. the spaniards thought that much centuries ago. they were the first to arrive. empty concrete bunkers still stick around. in 1954 the defense went to the next level, to some an unthinkable level. the marine head lands became home to a battery of nike guided missells, they were armed with war heads. they interfaced with time tested missells. there were more than 300nike missiles across the country, 16 in the bay area and this one nestled in the rolling hills of marine was one of them.

the nike missells were designed from dropping nuclear bombs in the united states. the soldiers that made them had a simple enough model, if it flies it dives. >> the nike hercules had a range of 90 miles and a flight time of about one minute. it was designed to go up in the air up to 25 miles, make a turn, come down and explode over the top of a group of bombers. >> reporter: but the enemy never came and as bombers increasingly gave way to long range missiles, a state of the art nike gave way as well. and it was soon obsolete. so why is this missile base so maticulously maintained to keep this place? memory. this place where greatfully a shot was never fired in anger. >> it's history, and that's the

main thing we're all here to preserve. there's very few people in the bay area or around the united states that know we had these missile ground around. now we have an opportunity to bring people in and say this was the cold war. >> gary calth looked at the missile, and at the times they came closest to be fired. >> reporter: looks like something out of the 60s doesn't it. missells rising up, pointing toward the heavens to intercept in coming war heads but these pictures were shot last month and right here in our own bay area. this is the army's nike missell sight. the last of 11 anti aircraft

missile launch sites that protected the san francisco bay area during the cold years along with the two nike batteries in the head lands where batteries of the smaller convention war heads in place in daly city at the san francisco presidio, on angel islands, in the oakland hills, above pacifica and at travis air force bay. >> a huge radar on top of montias would be sweeping all the time. if it detected incoming flight of what they call ufos it would alert a couple of the batteries, the hot batteries to bring up the missile and get prepared to launch. after launch, it could be fed electronic information to change the launch. >> in this area we never knew if it would work because we never launched one. >> reporter: at least not in

anger. they got a chance to fire a live missile and knock down a drone plane. >> three, two, one, fire. >> reporter: while these missells were never actually fired they were brought up to alert stage a number of times. during the arab-israeli crisis this model was hot and repeated several times. >> if you think about the power they were sitting on to be allowed, come in bring visitors, it's an eerie feeling like you were trespassing a little. still to come on a second look. how a wayward elephant seal found help and why it's name was changed in the process. heading out to sea, how the center responds when a marine mammal is too big to come to them.

tonight we're taking a second look at the marine mammal center. when the exxon valdez ran aground and created a oil spill, the people at the marine mammal center decided they needed to set up an emergency facility in case such a disaster happened here. seven years later in 1996 they had just such a facility. and rob roth was there when it opened. >> reporter: this is bar, 000, -- barbie a california sea lion recovering from an infection. today barbie was the sole inhabitant of the emergency care facility which officially opened this afternoon. the $200,000 project is sort of like an emergency room, especially for animals caught

in oil spills. it has seven different pools capable of handling oil soaked marine mammals. >> we can keep oiled animals, healthy oiled animals separate from sick animals. we can keep them separate. and the past there was no way of doing that. >> reporter: marine wildlife officials say the need for such a facility became apparent during the exxon valdez disaster. 11million-gallons of oil poured into the alaskan sound, killing thousands of sea gulls. >> what tends to happen is the facilities aren't that good, they're built really quickly. a lot of times the construction occurs while the animals are in place. that's an extra stress on those animals. a lot of animals died because we didn't have proper facilities for them. and there was another reminder more recently and closer to home. 80,000-gallons of thick bunker oil spilled in the san

francisco bay and it too took its toll on wildlife. the new facility at the marine mammal center makes it one of the best equipped centers in the world. >> we'll be in place ready to roll within hours of the spill. >> reporter: still many birds do not survive being rescued. and there are no reliable studies on how well marine mammals do after a spill. >> over the years the marine mammal center has rescued thousands of animals. in 2004 one of them was a young elephant seal who appeared headed for the oakland hills when the authorities intervened. as bob mackenzie indicates, the

rescue also had a name change. >> reporter: elie the seal was headed up an aquaduct. the center would have ended in the hills. not a good place for the seal. the seal ran into the law. some children had spotted the animal and notified a policeman. after a momentary stand off with firefighters, the seal was wrapped in a net and hoisted away. during this encounter one of the firefighters named the seal bob. that had to be revised this morning at the marine mammal center in marine county where caretakers who knew what to look for renamed the seal emmie. she made it from her birthplace some 60 miles away. emmie's health checked out fine and early this afternoon she was transported to a deserted beach along with a pair of sea

lions to go back to nature. >> elephant seals at this age, it's not surprising to see them in odd locations during their first move. so we do see them in odd locations. >> reporter: the marine mammal center is a sizable enterprise devoted to helping sick animals get back on their flippers. it employs some 800 volunteers. mr.perez for example is a retired banker. >> it's wonder. i enjoyed my time at the bank and i'm enjoying this time. >> reporter: emmie perhaps a little irked of being cooped up

all night, but soon made her way back into the water. vern hawkins brought us this report at the time. >> reporter: a sea otter named freedom was getting a good look over today at the marine center. >> her teeth are starting to come in. she has all four canines coming in. >> reporter: sea otters like people too much for their own good. >> we had one otter that when we first released it jumped on a kayak, jumped on a boat and said hi, feed me. >> now what we do is to actually keep them pretty dry. and because the pups are dry on the mom's belly for about 85% of the time. >> reporter: freedom was found on a carmel beach and brought here to the marine mammal center because there's no more

room for otters at the aquarium. it is the center's first otter patient. now the center and the aquarium can pool their knowledge. to learn more about otter survival still listed as threatened. the california sea otter population is estimated at 400. up along way from just 50 less than two decades ago. though making a come back here along the monterey coast. they're not out of the woods. >> population estimates of the california sea otter have declined. we're not sure why. disease accounts for 38% of the mortality that has been reported since 1989. >> reporter: but the survival rate for abandoned pups is way up. it was zero in the 80s. this constant grooming and feeding mimicks moms. >> these pups and all these animals would have been left on the beach to die. >> reporter: researchers usually release pups.

at one time the california sea otter was found along the entire pacific coast. researchers say with what's being learned now, maybe one day they'll be back. >> last year researchers said they counted about 500 more sea otters than when vern hawkins filed that story. they also said that in the past three years the numbers have been in decline. when we come back here on a second look, what a north bay fisherman did when he found a sea otter in trouble. and then, he looks friendly, but don't get too close.

we're taking a second look at the marine mammal center in the marine head lands. sometimes the work is too big to bring home.

that was the case in 1979 when crews were sent to disentangle a hump back whale. >> reporter: the whale was snarled in the buoy lines from a set of crab traps sunday morning and was exhausted from the struggle to get free. the whale's bad luck was followed by some good luck. charles martin of vallejo was in his boat returning with some friends from a fishing trip to the ferelons. they happened to catch sight of the whale in the waves. martin and his friends shot this video of the encounter they noticed that seals were leaping all around the whale almost as though the seal had come to the aid of a friend in trouble. >> one of my friends that was with me said he was thinking about cutting off the ropes out there i said i don't think we can. it's pretty cold water out there. >> reporter: martin called the coast guard. meanwhile nick minegos a charter boat skipper who had

also seen the whale called the marine mammal center in marin county. >> we mounted the troops and two members of our water rescue teams which are trained to proactively disentangle seals and sea lions but they've also had some whale disentanglement training. the both of them hopped on boat with captain chris and they headed offshore. >> reporter: the rescuers arrived in early afternoon to find the whale still entangled. an adult hump back weighs about 90,000 pounds and has a life span of at least 50 years. >> we usually try and avoid people going into the water with the animals because it's a very big whale. it's 50 feet long and it's not happy. it's scared, it's tied down. they did discover that the animal was pretty much immobile. they discussed options and decided it was necessary to go

into the water and disentangle it. >> they did this at some risk to themselves. >> very dangerous situation to go into the water. >> reporter: she's now happy free of all these entangmentments and is out there swimming some where. in april another whale was spotted off the coast entangled in buoys. some fishermen spotted it near bodega bay and felt they needed to help. debra villalon has their story. >> reporter: mark anelo took us aboard their crabber to show us buoy and snarled line that he cut from a whale. >> it was around his line. it looked like he was trying to chew the rope off of him. >> reporter: the migrating gray

illuded rescuers who could not entangle it but attached buoys to make it more visible. anelo spotted those buoys bobbing. >> they're diving and coming back up. diving. >> reporter: he grabbed some video when he saw what the buoys were hooked to. >> i was trying to drive the boat and video tape. >> then he sped alongside. then he and another crew member snapped the ropes. the whale close enough to touch. >> he was right on the surface. he was wore out. he was definitely wore out. we got right to him. >> reporter: all the while careful to make sure they didn't get pulled over. >> we did dive a couple of times but i wasn't going to get taken down by the whale. >> reporter: anelo had no idea this whale had been on tv, marine experts worried it might die weak and unable to feed. not until his dad asked where did he get a new buoy did that whale of a rescue ever come up.

>> who know where is that whale would have gone. just happened to come by my son's boat. i'm proud of the whole crew. >> reporter: the danger seemed secondary to the whale's distress. >> if he wanted to sink me he could have, but i think he knew i was trying to help him. >> he came up and took a breath of air, and it looked thankful. we're going to tell you what happened to a blinded sea lion after it was shot. and why you want to leave sea lion feeding to the experts. o, well then you couldn't watch diddly-squat. you talk a lot. you have no idea how good you have it. that's not working. [ grunts ] [ male announcer ] get a wireless receiver in time for the olympic games. get u-verse tv for $25 a month with free hd for six months. rethink possible.

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a little over a year ago the marine mammal center delivered two sea lions to by begin their life there. one of them was called silent night, blinded by a single gunshot. the ongoing problem of people shooting sea lions. >> he's finally resting and finally sleeping and relaxing. >> reporter: it's been a rough couple of days for this 340- pound male, his left eye is swollen shut. his right eye is gone after someone fired a shotgun at him. >> he's got at least five that are lodged in him. there's one, two, three, four, five that we can see. >> reporter: pellets about the size of a fingernail an attack that probably happened the same day. but who did it and why, a mystery. >> some people do view these

animals as nuisances. an analogy might be a campground bear. >> reporter: the vet treating him says he will see at least 10 sea lions shot each year. last year a sacramento man spent time in jail for shooting a sea lion for stealing his fish. >> there has to -- >> reporter: many more are wounded but die undetected uncounted which is why they urge patients for the damage or irritation sea lions may cause. as for this new patient, the plan is to leave the pellets where they are for now and see how he heals. some sea lions like this one shot a few years ago returned to the ocean after regaining their health. it's too soon to tell this time. >> even as big as they are, sea lions can look a little cute and cuddly but boy can that be deceiving. in 2006, bob mackenzie found

one in berkeley that was aggressive, maybe even a little bit mean. >> reporter: this big male sea lion has been hanging around for more than a year and boaters and visitors were mostly amused by him. but there was nothing amusing about what happened to tony houston. she works as a cook on a sports fishing boat. yesterday the sea lion popped out of the water and took a bite out of her leg. >> standing on the dock talking to a friend. and i'm about 2 feet away from the edge. and all of a sudden i feel this, sharp object against my leg and i feel a thug, and i pull the other way and the sea lion was going back into the water. >> reporter: that was not the only attack on humans. >> i believe in el dorado one of the crew members was

cleaning fish, and the sea lion went toward her. >> reporter: federal investigator norm simon believes people have been feeding the animal and that's why it's grabbing humans thinking they are carrying fish. since simon works under cover we will not show his face. >> we will try to relocate the animal and take him to another area. >> reporter: but then he would likely come back. >> the last couple of years he's been a pet to us. we've fed him. after we've cleaned our fish to us and it's been no problem. >> so we used to feed him. but now we can't throw the caucus out the boat. >> reporter: so he's mad. >> reporter: so today workers came out to try to catch the sea lion. she succeeded in luring him half way through the cage but

the critter had his antenna up. >> absolutely. you see but i'm shaking underneath. that's why i have to take breaks because the adrenaline is pumping through my system and it is scary. >> that's it for this week's a second look. i'm frank somerville. we'll see you next week.