With the larger pool, the manatee rehabilitation habitat is designed to house up to three adult manatees, and includes a medical pool which can be used to isolate a manatee and lower the water level. This makes veterinary exams and procedures easier to accomplish and less stressful for the animal. The main pool offers both shallow and deep water so that resident manatees can engage in a wider variety of natural social and feeding behaviors. With these new facilities, the Museum was certified by the USDA in 1997 as a "Level 2" manatee rehabilitation facility, meaning the Parker Nanatee Rehabilitation Habitat could house rehab animals that no longer required critical veterinary care, but could not yet be released to the wild. This cleared the way for the Museum to partner with the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership and Sea to Shore Alliance to care for rehabilitating manatees and eventually return them to the wild. Since 1997, the Museum has cared for and successfully released more than 25 manatees.