In February, Sea to Shore Alliance staffers Monica Ross and Zack Johnson helped rescue a manatee mother and calf suffering from cold stress. On April 18, they had the pleasure of helping return that pair to the wild.
Rehabilitated manatees released into Jacksonville's Trout River
By Dan Scanlan, The Florida Times-Union
The 870-pound mother manatee's name matches where she was rescued on a cold Feb. 13 - Jea, for the JEA's Northside Generating Station in San Carlos Creek.
Her 253-pound baby's name is a bit inventive, too - Son, for JackSONville.
Treated by manatee veterinarians at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo, the mother and calf reunion to warmer waters occurred Wednesday morning after their two-month rehabilitation saw them restored to chubby gray sea cow health. Almost 20 people carried the pair into the Trout River at the Bert Maxwell Boat Ramp on Broward Road, just west of Interstate 95.
They had been found trying to stay warm in a water discharge canal at the power plant, said Florida mammals zookeeper Jaime Vaccaro.
"Cold stress for manatees is a lot like humans having frostbite, so a lot of times you will see white scarring on their skin due to cell and tissue dying," Vaccaro said. "... A lot of times they will go off from the power plant area to get something to eat and hit cold water and not necessarily make it back."
It was important to return the manatee mother and calf close to where they were when the cold water got them, said Zack Johnson, a field assistant with the Sea to Shore Alliance marine mammal study group. He was soaked after helping return Jea to the river.
"The calf is still too young to make it on its own, and they generally stay with their moms for two years to learn how to feed and where to go," Johnson said.
After being rescued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and shipped to Tampa, the 6-year-old mother and roughly 6-month-old calf went on a steady diet of produce - romaine lettuce, endive and escarole - plus antibiotics. Jea gained about 130 pounds. Her calf went from a relatively skinny 203 pounds to more than 250.
Kept wet with sprayers on their four-hour trip from Tampa, Son was carried from a rented truck by four people.
As he sniffed the air and peered around the boat ramp, it took more than a dozen people from the Lowry zoo, conservation commission and Jacksonville Zoo to get Jea. They were carried into the murky water together and then disappeared.
"We saw two noses come up," Vaccaro said. "It was good they went off
together."
Sea to Shore Alliance
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