On Friday afternoon at Tween Waters Marina on Captiva, crews found a young manatee barely holding on. The poor animal, just 6.8 feet long and underweight, had chronic open wounds across its back and couldn’t even keep itself afloat.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers stepped in, with backup from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and Cape Coral Police, and rescued him. They rushed the manatee to ZooTampa for treatment, where veterinarians could finally give it the help it needed.
Florida manatees face a tough battle for survival, surrounded by threats from both nature and people. The biggest danger is boat collisions. Speeding watercraft often hit these slow-moving animals, leaving them injured or dead. Separately, decades of water pollution have wiped out huge sections of seagrass, their primary food source, which leaves manatees hungry and weak.
Even as spring comes around, cold stress remains a serious problem. Manatees don’t have enough body fat to withstand sudden drops in water temperature, making these chills deadly. Pollution adds insult to injury. Toxic runoff and harmful algal blooms, like the dreaded red tide, poison the water and their food, and trigger fatal respiratory issues.
Then there’s marine debris. Abandoned fishing lines, trap wires, and random plastics litter the waterways. Manatees often get tangled up, injured, or worse, lose limbs. Unnatural traps turn up too. Sometimes manatees end up stuck in floodgates, storm drains, or water control structures, putting them in even more danger.
If you see a sick, injured, or dead manatee, don’t wait. Call the Wildlife Alert Hotline at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: 1-888-404-FWCC (3922). Every report helps keep these animals alive.
