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After Months On Mend at Lowry Park Zoo, Manatee Released

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By KEITH MORELLI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 9, 2008

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 in July, tangled in a crab-trap line.

The entanglement cut off circulation to his left pectoral fin, and to save him veterinarians had to amputate.

After 10 months of recovery 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 Thursday afternoon 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 Thursday and said the release went off pretty much without a hitch.

She said schoolchildren 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.

Peace Pec "just kind of went out straight into the river," and then he was gone, she said.

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

The release was bittersweet for veterinarians and caretakers at the zoo. They were sorry to see him go, but happy they could make him well.

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, zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson said. There, they are familiar with the terrain.

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

Just before 10 a.m., the manatee was easily snared. The procedure was made easier by a movable wooden floor that is winched up, which leaves the manatee with less room to thrash.

Once in the truck, he got a little unruly, rolling around and rocking the truck side to side. A team calmed him and he settled down once the truck began moving.

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 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 are a resilient lot, he said: "They are amazingly tough animals."

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 kmorelli@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7760.

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