MANATEE

A manatee goes surfing and it was all caught on camera.

They're big, slow, and lovable. Who wouldn't want to swim with, pet or even ride a manatee? Here's why you shouldn't, and what will happen if you do.

Local 10 News was granted an exclusive first-hand look at the manatee protections in place at the Miami International Boat Show.

Manatee deaths are up sharply due to starvation. With colder weather approaching, wildlife officials are preparing feeding stations on Florida's east coast, where the manatees' food source, seagrass, has died off.

Crystal River, home to roughly 3,000 people and located 90 minutes north of Tampa, is the only place in North America where you can legally swim with manatees.

Subtropical Storm Nicole is strengthening as it heads toward Florida's East Coast, but tropical storm conditions could affect Sarasota and Manatee.

Hundreds of residents in Manatee, Florida, were told to evacuate their homes amid fears that a wastewater pond could collapse. Janet Shamlian has the latest.

“They were like 20-some percent [of seniors vaccinated],” DeSantis said. “I had some counties that were 50% just a few weeks ago. So we said, ‘Where can we go to make an impact?’ So we did a senior pod at Lakewood Ranch, which is very successful, thousands of seniors got it. … So what we did worked in Manatee, we’re not done in Manatee, but that’s what it was about.”

Copyright 2021 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved. FILE: Manatee resting at Three Sisters Springs (Crystal River NWR) while shading over a school of mangrove snappers. If you need help with the Public File, call (954) 364-2526.

“Anyone in Manatee [County], if they don’t want us doing it, then just tell us, and we’ll make sure that we send those doses to folks who want it,” DeSantis said threateningly in response to county commissioners who asked why the “whitest and richest” portions of the county were able to access more doses than other areas.

CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the conviction of whoever etched “Trump” onto a manatee’s back in Citrus County, Florida. Fish and Wildlife Service in Jacksonville, who also confirmed in a Jan. 13 email to Zenger News that the agency is investigating the matter. The nonprofit group Center for Biological Diversity has offered the $5,000 reward “because what happened to this manatee was wrong and unlawful. It is clear that the offender handled the wild manatee and prevented it from escaping,” Save the Manatee said. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a press statement, adding that the federal agency is working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on the case.

MIAMI – A manatee mystery has South Florida officials scratching their heads after one of the gentle sea cows was found dead. “I came over here and I see this giant manatee without a head,” Mahomar told Local 10. “Salinity control structures closing on manatees was the second leading cause of deaths of manatees in the state of Florida,” said Silverstein. Now, as those gates are closing, if it detects the presence of a manatee those gates are supposed to stop. That leads to a question of whether those sensors were working at the time the manatee Mahomar found was crushed.

ISLAMORADA, Fla. – An orphaned infant manatee was rescued Saturday after being spotted by homeowners that there was something beneath underwater rocks along their dock. The Dolphin Research Center’s (DRC) Manatee Rescue Team and volunteers with Dolphins Plus Marine Mammal Responder unit assisted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee to corral the calf with netting. They then successfully scooped the manatee from the water using a large hoop net. They did not know why the calf separated from her mom. On Sunday afternoon, a Seaquarium veterinarian said the manatee was in “guarded condition.”After evaluation and treatment, she was placed in a pool with an older orphaned female manatee.

PLANTATION KEY, Fla. – A manatee was rescued over the weekend by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers with the help of local citizens, authorities said. FWC Officer Bobby Dube said several people spotted the manatee in the water off a dock in Plantation Key early Saturday and told officers that the manatee seemed to be in distress and injured. When officers arrived, they noticed that the manatee could not swim or use its left fin. The people who spotted the manatee watched it until the FWC's Manatee Group arrived. BaumGartner operated a boat while the Manatee Group guided the injured manatee into a hoop net and safely loaded him into their transport vehicle.