Dead manatee found off Buttonwood Bay

Orange Walk residents may have had dead fish to deal with last week, but today a dead manatee was found near Buttonwood Bay in Belize City. It is still not clear what killed the gentle marine mammal but its companions apparently realized something was wrong. Fisheries boat Captain Liston McCord who was the first one to see the body this morning says he has seen a number of manatees in the area near West Landivar and believes they are mating. The body drifted with the current until it was just off the Fisheries’ pier where it was retrieved.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting

“When you were bringing in the manatee to the Fisheries, did you notice anything peculiar?”

Liston McCord, Captain, Fisheries Department

“Yeah, when we were towing the manatee here, the other manatees kept following it all the way up to work, it came, some of them were actually touching the dead manatee, you know.”

Janelle Chanona

“What do you think the cause of death might be here?”

Liston McCord

“It could be hit by a propeller but we don’t know for sure we got to turn the manatee upside, turn it over on the beach here and then we could tell you definitely or it could be childbirth.”

An autopsy performed by Dr. Michael DeShield and Endhir Sosa has confirmed that the manatee had several fractured ribs and internal injuries. It is believed it was struck by a large boat. McCord says that while Belize boasts a healthy manatee population, boat owners should slow down in areas manatees are know to frequent.