Stranded manatee fights for life
It’s not certain whether the increased boat traffic surrounding the burgeoning cruise tourism industry is taking its toll on Belize City’s manatees…but what we do know is that tonight an ailing calf is struggling for life in the absence of its mother, the likely victim of a deadly propeller. Patrick Jones reports from Fort Point.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
Officers of the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute carried out the early afternoon rescue mission. Nicole Auil, who has worked extensively with manatees, says the calf was sighted in the murky waters near the Radisson pier late last week and that the recovery effort was necessary to try and save the animal.
Nicole Auil, Manatee Researcher
“A calf this size, which we estimate to be less than a month old?it is very small, less then a metre long?is a dependent calf and it will always be in the vicinity of an adult, which would be its mother. And since it’s been observed since Thursday, which is four days ago, we can safely say that it is alone and therefore in need of rescue.”
That rescue effort was not as difficult as anticipated. After carefully laying a net to prevent the animal from swimming away, four divers from the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute entered the cloudy waters to retrieve the baby manatee.
After the calf was lifted out of the water, it was given a quick assessment by a waiting veterinarian. And the prognosis from Doctor Michael DeShield was not good.
Dr. Michael DeShield, Veterinarian
“Pretty tough condition, poor. Very, very dehydrated. You could look under it; it has some slight injuries on the body. Lots of barnacles, it’s been out here a little while I think, so it’s very dehydrated. The first thing to do is probably try to get it re-hydrated, but it looks pretty bad.”
Patrick Jones
“Preliminarily, what’s the prognosis for survival?”
Dr. Michael DeShield
“Poor, poor. But I think we’re going to give it the beast shot that we can.”
The suffering sea cow was rushed to emergency facilities at the Fisheries compound, where officials of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network began an intensive re-hydration effort, feeding the manatee an electrolyte solution in hopes of keeping it alive. If successful, this latest rescue will, like previous ones in this same area, end with its eventual return to the wild in southern Belize.
Nicole Auil
“What the plan is for this animal is, we will take it and do a temporary intensive rehabilitation for two to three weeks, monitoring its health and working very closely with a veterinarian, volunteer veterinary services usually comes from the Animal Medical Centre. And what we will do thereafter is send it to Wild Tracks, which is in Sarteneja. And we have chosen them because they are located adjacent to a lagoon in Sarteneja, which provides natural habitat and basically free water for us to use as a pen where we set up a temporary mesh pen and keep it there. And they also have number of volunteers, they bring in students from the U.K. who do three month service in Belize. So they have the people and they raised Woody, so they have the experience.”
Official do not know what may have happened to the mother of the calf, although it is strongly believe that the animal may have been run over and killed by a boat, as the location in which the calf was found is a high traffic area. Patrick Jones, for News 5.
Funds to aid in the rehabilitation effort have been provided by the Hugh Parkey Foundation.
