“Captain Hook”, the sea lion rescued off Newport Beach, was released early Monday off San Clemente Island with a Coast Guard cutter.

The sea lion received its name after it was found with 70 hooks stuck in him.

Michele Hunter of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach said: "He had more hooks than I've ever seen in one animal," Los Angeles Times reports.

The center is a facility that saves mammals and takes care of them until they can be released.

Captain Hook was rescued twice. First time he was rescued in October, when he was found with 70 hooks and lines stuck in him. In November he was released off San Onofre, but in a few days he was seen around Balboa Pier. After he disappeared for a while, he was again spotted at Newport dunes Waterfront Resort.

The sea lion ate almost 50 pounds of fish a day in captivity.

He was taken on Monday around 6:45 a.m. in a pickup truck from the center to the U.S. Coast Guard station in San Pedro. He was then loaded into a 175-foot vessel, around 9 a.m. for the six hour voyage towards the San Clemente Island, that is 60 miles off San Diego, myfoxla.com informs.

Melissa Sciacca, director of development for the center, said: "There's a rookery out there with lots of female sea lions eating herring and the kinds of fish that are out there.”

Referring to the hooks that were found stuck in him, she said: “"It's not something that typical. This sea lion is know to have hung out around fishing areas. He's an older 12-year-old that could have been eating in areas where fishermen have lines or eating fish with hooks in them used as bait."

The marine mammal gained almost 200 pounds in captivity. The people at the center worked with the sea lion to make him comfortable so “the cage wasn’t a scary place.”

The center asked for the help of the Coast Guard because they realized that the sea lion was too large.

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Andrew Muñoz said: “We do this as operations allow. One of our missions is the protection of marine species. When we can do it, we will."