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Injured Manatee Rehabilitated, Released Into Wild

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Peace Pec, an 835-pound male manatee, rests after being carried onto a truck Thursday in Tampa.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 8, 2008

Updated: 05/08/2008 05:15 pm

TAMPA - Peace Pec was named for the place and manner of his injury. The 4- to 5-year-old manatee was found struggling in the mouth of the Peace River last July, all tangled up in a crab trap line. The entanglement had cut off circulation to his left pectoral fin and, to save him, veterinarians were forced to amputate.

After 10 months of recovery, and after gaining a couple of hundred pounds eating lush romaine lettuce and hydrilla in Lowry Park Zoo's David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Hospital tanks, the 835-pound sea cow was snared in a sling, put aboard a box truck and hauled off to the place his troubles began, Charlotte County.

Deirdre Semeyn, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission drove the truck to Charlotte County and said the release this afternoon went off pretty much without a hitch.

"Everything went really well," she said. "He traveled well and it was a really nice release."
She said a group of school children from Charlotte County were there to watch.

Peace Pec was let loose at the Harbor Heights boat ramp, a secluded part of the Peace River.

"We couldn't see if there were any other manatees there," she said. Peace Pec "just kind of went out straight into the river."

And then he was gone, she said.

"It's always nice to know that he's going back into wild," she said

Peace Pec's departure means the park is no longer treating a record number of injured or sick manatees, at least for now. There were 15, now there's only 14.

"We're back to our second highest number," said zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson, "and we've reached that three times."

The departure of the healthy animal was bittersweet for veterinarians and caretakers at the zoo. They were sorry to see him go, but happy they could make him well enough to be released.

A team of park workers, veterinarians and a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission helped corral the manatee at the zoo and muscled him into a truck that immediately headed south. Injured manatees ideally are released where they were rescued, Nelson said. There, they are familiar with the terrain, where the warm waters are, where the food is.

Peace Pec is expected to thrive in the wild, Nelson said.

Just before 10 a.m., the manatee was easily snared within a few minutes. The procedure was made easier by a movable wooden floor that is winched up, which leaves less water the manatee can thrash around in.

Once he got into the truck, he did get a little unruly, rolling around and rocking the truck from side to side. A team calmed him and he settled down once the truck began moving. They kept a constant spray of water on him, Nelson said.

Virginia Edmonds, assistant curator of Florida mammals at the zoo, was happy to see another patient returned to the wild.

"I guess we do get attached to everybody here," she said, speaking in front of several concrete tanks that house injured manatees. "But we're happy to give Peace Pec a second chance. Hopefully, we won't ever see him again."

She said that the zoo has rehabilitated and released about 200 manatees.

Peace Pec's injury was unique in that the flipper was bound so tightly, she said, that it had swelled "and was just about ready to fall off."

Zoo veterinarian David Murphy worked the crane that hoisted Peace Pec from the tank this morning.

"He came in with a problem," Murphy said, "and we fixed the problem."

Manatees, he said, are a resilient lot.

"They are amazingly tough animals," he said. After 20 years of treating sick and injured manatees, Murphy doesn't become attached to them.

"I've seen a few," he said. "Do I get attached? Not emotionally. I enjoy doing the professional aspect of it. I enjoy accomplishing what we set out to do."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com

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