Festival Season Is HERE Homosassa Prepares for Manatee Season
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Homosassa Prepares for Manatee Season Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park Adoption Update By Kate Spratt, Park Services Specialist As the heat of another Florida summer gives way to cooler air and changing leaves, the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is gearing up for the beginning of manatee season. At this time, rangers and volunteers are preparing for the coming winter weather. In mid-November, the gates on the Long River Bridge will be opened to allow the wild manatees to enter. Prior to this, our team snorkels the spring, checking the in-water fencing and evaluating it for any potential hazards. This ensures safety for our three resident manatees when they move into the paddock area, as well as the continued on page 7 Manatees congregate in the warm spring waters around the Underwater Observatory. Photo by Kate Spratt. Festival Season is HERE By Diana Ngai, Communications and Outreach Manager As the manatees gather at their warm water sites for winter, so The Official Newsletter of too do the various manatee festivals and events throughout Florida. Save the Manatee® Club Save the Manatee Club (SMC) will set up information tables or booths 500 N. Maitland Ave., Ste. 210 at community festivals and nature-themed fairs or conventions across Maitland, FL 32751 the state. SMC relies on our esteemed team of volunteers to staff these events during the year and deliver information about manatees November, Volume 38 and the Club’s conservation work to the public. Our volunteers are the Issue #4 of 2019 backbone of our organization. They create a powerful impact as we Published four times a year work together in pursuing the Club’s mission and goals to help protect in March, June, September, and November. manatees and their aquatic habitat. Every hour volunteered is greatly appreciated, but never quite so much as during manatee season, the busiest time of year for festivals Artwork by Nancy Blauers Nancy by Artwork in Florida. (A close second is Earth Month in April.) Help is needed now to table at these events, and we ask our members and continued on page 7 Sign up to receive our Action Alerts, eNewsletter, and deals from our manatee merchandise store at savethemanatee.org/signup. Manatee Rescued Through Multi-Agency Cooperation By Cora Berchem, Manatee Research and Multimedia Specialist This past winter was generally warm, area of Lake Harris, however, several cold fronts had hundreds Lake Eustis, and of manatees migrating to warm water sites Lake Griffin, it was to survive the coldest days of the year. Most extremely difficult to tiny.cc/bagorescue. of them made it to warm water in time, but confirm sightings and some did not. keep track of the manatee. As the water grew On January 29th, we participated with colder, and without a warm water source in our partners from the Manatee Rescue and the area, a multi-agency rescue was organized. Rehabilitation Partnership (MRP) to assist After one failed attempt the week prior, with the rescue of a manatee near Lake this time the rescuers were able to corral the Griffin, FL. The manatee had been reported manatee into a shallow canal, encircle him by citizens over several weeks but, in the large with a net, pull him on to the rescue boat, and transport him to a waiting rescue truck. It was quickly determined that the manatee was severely cold stressed and in poor physical condition. Cold stress is a condition similar to hypothermia, frostbite, and pneumonia in people – severe or prolonged cold can compromise a manatee’s immune system, causing white lesions to form on the skin. Lesions were already covering the manatee’s body, so the decision was made to immediately transport him to SeaWorld Orlando for rehabilitation. SeaWorld staff affectionately named the manatee “Bago” (pronounced Bay-go) due to the presence of many Winnebagos in a nearby mobile home park at the rescue location. Luckily, Bago’s rehabilitation was a success, and six months later he was cleared for release. On July 18th, we assisted our partners from the MRP with Bago’s release near Welaka in the St. John’s River. Prior to the release, Bago was outfitted with a satellite tracking device so researchers can track his movements and verify that he is doing well. Bago also had some significant scar patterns from previous Manatee Bago being prepared for his release collisions with motorboats, so they were back into the wild on July 18, 2019. Photo courtesy of Patrick Rose, Save the Manatee carefully recorded for re-identification later. Club. Hopefully, Bago will find his way to a suitable warm water habitat this winter. ■ Have you ever thought about becoming a Club volunteer? Or joining our Manatee Sighting Network? Or contacting decision makers? To find out more about all the ways you can help, go to savethemanatee.org/moreways. Thank you so much! You make a big difference in the lives of manatees! 2 Tampa Bay Adoptees Elusive, But Millie Surprises All Tampa Bay and East Coast Adoption Update By Cora Berchem, Manatee Research and Multimedia Specialist During the summer months, all the Tampa Bay adoptees as well as Chessie remained elusive with no sightings reported by our partners from FWC, Mote, and USGS. Illusion, however, was seen as recently as last December at the Riviera Beach power plant, so we are staying tuned for updates on her as the winter draws near. On the contrary, Millie lives up to her reputation of being a real traveler and was up for some surprises! During the 2018-19 winter season, she was seen at Blue Spring in December and then at the Port Everglades power plant in late January (see map). It is very unusual for a manatee to visit two warm water sites in one winter that are so far apart from each other. Then, in August and September, Millie was spotted back up North in the Silver River by both the public and by our partners from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute (CMARI). It is fascinating to observe how manatees use so many different habitats and how they are able navigate between them. We are very curious to see where Millie will show up this winter! ■ Donate to SMC every time you shop on Amazon. Go to smile.amazon.com, select Save the Manatee Club as your preferred charity, and then log in as you normally would. Amazon will then donate the equivalent of .5% of your eligible purchases to the Club. Join Us This Giving ‘Teesday By Tonya Higgins, Director of Development and Operations For me, this time of year is an emotional roller- As we celebrate greeting new and familiar coaster filled with joy, reflection, gratefulness, faces, the telling scars on the backs of most frustration, and, sometimes, sorrow. Although manatees serve as a reminder of the perils of we work to protect manatees wherever they live, manatee life, the gravity of our efforts and our enduring history of researching and protecting accomplishments, and the importance of our manatees at Blue Spring in particular is personally remaining steadfast as we work to achieve our impactful. As our specialists monitor the return of mission and goals. manatees to their warm-water winter sanctuary As we combat the ever-growing issues at Blue Spring State Park, each known manatee confronting manatees and their habitat through is affectionately welcomed home, new attendees our education, advocacy, legal, and rescue, are celebrated, and every new scar and injury is rehabilitation and release efforts, we are forever heartbreakingly documented. Whilst we remain mindful that it is you, our vital supporters, who grateful for the manatee lives that were spared enable our work and help us achieve our successes. from tragedy for another year, sometimes one of Without your help, I fear many more manatees our known friends does not return, and we are left would suffer needlessly at the hands of human wondering if we will ever get to see them again. activity. continued on page 7 3 Did you know that you can help fundraise for manatees. SMC has a free tool where you can create your own fundraising webpage to share with your family and friends. Visit bit.ly/SMCHero to see how! To all who selflessly dedicate your birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries to raise funds; or dedicate marathons and cross-country adventures; or have a campaign “just because,” we, and the manatees you help save, are grateful for your support. DISL Partners With FWC and the U.S. Coast Guard Alabama/DISL Adoption Update By Dr. Ruth Carmichael, Director of DISL/MSN and Elizabeth Hieb, Research Technician As summer turns to fall, Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Manatee Sighting Network (DISL/MSN) continues to stay busy conducting manatee research in the northern Gulf of Mexico. In our last update, we reported that Save the Manatee Club adoptee Bama had been spotted traveling in the Intracoastal Waterway near Orange Beach, Alabama. Since then, DISL/MSN has confirmed several more Bama sightings thanks to public reports from our citizen- science network! To report manatee sightings outside of Florida call 1-800-493-5803 or go to manatee.disl.org. During mid-August, Bama was seen with a group of at least five adult manatees traveling along the Dog River, an area frequently used by manatees in Alabama. In mid-September, videos submitted to DISL/MSN appear to show Bama with that same manatee herd spending time further north in Chickasaw Creek in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Known as a hotspot of DISL/MSN biologist Mackenzie Russell biodiversity, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta is often looks for manatees during aerial surveys in nicknamed “America’s Amazon,” and its rivers coastal Alabama.