More than a dozen rescuers rushed out to help a huge, 1,042-pound manatee and her calf after spotting her struggling in Cape Coral, Southwest Florida. This mama manatee, nearly ten feet long, needed urgent help, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) jumped into action right away.
People had seen her fighting for survival, so the FWC sent out its biologists and law enforcement, backed up by the Cape Coral Police and the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature. When they got to her, they found a propeller had hit her over 20 times. Even with all of her injuries, the baby wouldn’t leave its mother’s side.
Video taken at the scene of the rescue shows just how much muscle it took: 17 people worked together to lift both animals onto the FWC’s marine rescue boat. The baby manatee was already bigger than most adults at over seven feet long. Mama manatee measured almost ten feet.
After a rescue, FWC brings manatees to a critical care rehabilitation facility for treatment. Operations like this take a lot of gear, including a specialized rescue boat, climate-controlled transport trucks, nets, safety vessels, and a minimum of 10 trained rescue workers.
Manatees are key players in their ecosystems. Their eating habits keep waterways and sea floors healthy, according to NOAA. Cold snaps push them closer to shore, especially into canals and intracoastal waters. The FWC protects these gentle giants, threatened species under both state law and the federal Endangered Species Act.
Right now, biologists estimate between 8,000 and 12,000 manatees live in Florida. Their population bounced back enough that, in 2017, they shifted from endangered to threatened status.
Yet boat strikes remain a deadly reality. In their lives, over 90% of manatees sustain injuries from watercraft. It is rare for an adult manatee not to have sustained several hits, according to researchers. Those collisions lead to serious trauma, from sharp cuts, blunt injuries, sometimes death. Boat strikes account for about a quarter of all reported manatee deaths.
