APOLLO BEACH, Fla. — ZooTampa helped release two manatees back into Florida waters Tuesday morning after they received expert care and rehabilitation.
“It’s an amazing feeling. It really just puts into perspective everything that these manatees have gone through,” said Hannah Walsh, part of the manatee rescue team at ZooTampa.
Pebbles, a juvenile manatee, was rescued after suffering from boat strike wounds, cold stress, and malnutrition, weighing just 390 pounds. After almost two years of daily around the clock care, ZooTampa said she’s now a healthy 915 pounds.
It took several people to unload, lift, and release Pebbles into the water at the TECO Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach.
“It’s a great day when we can release a manatee back. I’ve been a part of so many, and it never gets old,” said Molly Lippincott, the Curator of Florida and Manatees at ZooTampa. “We hope that people will cherish manatees for many years to come.”
ZooTampa also released another manatee who was rescued with head trauma and a propeller wound across his face.
“Manatees can live 60 years, so we rescued pretty young animals, about three years or less, so they have their entire life ahead of them. Hopefully, they’ll go out and mate, and we’ll have more manatees in the future,” said Lippincott.
Lippincott said their goal is to educate and hopefully teach people how to be safe around manatees. She said boaters can wear polarized sunglasses to help see manatees in the water a little bit clearer and slow down in no wake zones.
“Manatees really only swim 5 to 10mph, and so they can’t get away very easily from boats,” said Lippincott. “So if you can slow down and they can hear you coming, it may give them that opportunity to get away.”
