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The unit that responded on Wednesday handles rescues and mortality responses statewide. They are based out of the FWC’s marine mammal pathobiology lab near Eckerd College. In the early morning on March 27, a group of USF St. Petersburg students standing near the sea wall spotted three manatees in Bayboro Harbor. The smallest one seemed to be struggling.
The sighting was reported to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and the manatee rescue team was immediately dispatched.
The small manatee turned out to be a calf, estimated to be one month old, suffering from cold stress, according to Kevin Baxter, spokesperson for the FWC. It had been surfacing frequently for air and lesions were appearing on its skin.
The strip of beach on the harbor grew crowded with concerned onlookers just as the rescue workers arrived on the scene. They attempted to net all three manatees, but they were only able to bring in the calf and the medium-sized adolescent. The calf’s mother eluded them.
After they determined the adolescent was healthy, they released it, but the calf was taken to Lowry Park Zoo for emergency care.
FWC workers and several volunteers filled a kiddie pool with seawater and carried it to the truck, submersing the calf to keep it moist until it arrived at the zoo. It was still in critical condition on Friday, according to Rachel Nelson, the zoo’s director of public relations. However, she says it is in expert care and is expected to recover with time.
“The rehab is basically all in their hands,” Baxter said. “We do come back into to play to coordinate a release if the rehab is successful down the road. That’s the goal anytime we rescue a manatee.”
Besides Lowry Park, FWC has many partner organizations that manage marine mammal rehabilitation throughout the state, including Sea World and the Miami Seaquarium.
Florida manatees, a subspecies of West Indian manatees, are endangered, so wildlife authorities are on extra-high alert regarding their safety. According to a preliminary mortality report, 409 have died already this year in Florida — more than in the last two years combined. Nineteen of the deaths are known to have been human-caused, and another 25 were from cold stress.
Baxter had some advice for people interested in protecting manatees in the future.
“The big thing is just to be aware when you’re out and about,” he said. “There are a variety of situations. In this case this particular one was surfacing to breathe very frequently, much more so than is normal for a manatee. It could be that a manatee is lifting to one side in the water; basically just not behaving like typically a manatee would behave.”
If you see a manatee in distress the most direct way to help is to call the FWC’s wildlife alert hotline at 888-404-3922
news@crowsneststpete.com
