CSF - 01-03-07 Manatee Rescue

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01-03-07 Manatee Rescue by R. David Williams This morning I got a phone call from the Corpus Christi regional coordinator of the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network in regards of a manatee spotted in the ship channel. Lea Walker wanted me to head out the the Citgo Refinery to take a look. Ken Brown and Dr. Tim Tristan met me at Lea's house where I picked up the Network's truck. Once at Citgo, we had to watch a safety video and issue badges before heading to the docks within the plant. At this time, Tony Amos had met us there and we all went in together.




Once at the docks, we saw the manatee close to shore hanging out in a discharge of warm freshwater. At first glance, the manatee only appeared to be about 6 or 7 feet long. It was difficult to tell because the head and part of the body were the only thing we could see. Later, we found out that the manatee was over 9 and a half feet long.




Click HERE for a video of the manatee when we first got there. (12 MB file size) After getting a feel of what things were like, we headed back to the visitor center. Tim and Ken stayed there to plan the rescue which was coordinated with Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Texas State Aquarium, Citgo, U.S. Fish & Game, and Texas Parks & Wildlife. Tony and myself headed in opposite directions to gather supplies we needed for the rescue. Myself, I needed my wet gear, stranding pads, and my kayak. We met back at the visitor center once everyone got the supplies needed. We had several members joining us at this time from the different agencies. We went over the plan and discussed safety issues. Once the plan was set, we returned to the site where the manatee was at. At this time, Citgo had a crane and a light plant in place for our use as we neared darkness. When time came and everyone was set, I kayaked into the channel towing one end of a large seine and circled around the animal. Once back to shore, members in place began to pull the seine it to catch the manatee. The procedure of getting the stretcher in place and connecting to the crane went rather smoothly and before we knew it we had this animal out of the water and into the back of a large covered truck provided by Hest Fitness in no time. We were now on our way to the Sea Lab for the second leg of the rescue. Unfortunately, the big truck could not fit into the second gate at the Sea Lab, so we had to transfer the manatee into a smaller truck. Once we could get the smaller truck into the building we unloaded the animal to draw blood before putting it into the tank.


The next task was trying to get the manatee over the 5 foot side of the tank. This animal is estimated to be 600 pounds. Luckily, we had plenty of man power to do it. When the manatee was freed of the stretcher, it just swam slowly around to inspect its new environment. Currently, we are just observing the it. If it doesn't feed on its own, then we would have to tube it. Other than that, it just wait and see what happens. Also, we have to wait for additional instructions from U.S. Fish & Wildlife as this is the first manatee we have had in rehab. Click HERE for a video of the manatee while at Sea Lab. (12MB file size)




I think we were all impressed as to how smoothly everything went. We had excellent communication and team work. I like to thank everyone involved, especially everyone at Citgo. They were more than willing to help out in every way possible. They went as far as to get boat traffic halted during the rescue attempt. Many of there employees stayed well beyond quitting time to help us out. I will post up additional photos and reports as days go on.