{"id":475007,"date":"2026-02-12T11:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T11:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/475007\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T11:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T11:49:12","slug":"manatee-rescued-from-florida-storm-drain-is-on-the-mend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/475007\/","title":{"rendered":"Manatee rescued from Florida storm drain is on the mend"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A manatee that got stuck in a Florida storm drain while seeking warmer waters<\/a> is on the mend at SeaWorld Orlando after a coordinated rescue effort.<\/p>\n

Multiple fire rescue units and officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the University of Florida and even Jack\u2019s Wrecker Service were brought in Tuesday to get the 410-pound (186-kilogram) sea cow out of the storm drain in Melbourne Beach.<\/p>\n

The crews convened on the scene after a worker with Melbourne Beach spotted the manatee, the city\u2019s Vice Mayor Terry Cronin told WESH-TV in Orlando.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the process of improving the storm drain across Melbourne Beach. Our people were doing a survey. And one of the surveyors noticed a manatee in what is called a baffle box.\u201d Cronin said.<\/p>\n

The male manatee was taken to SeaWorld Orlando, where it is being cared for in one of the park\u2019s medical pools, spokesperson Stephanie Bechara said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s breathing on his own, moving independently and showing interest in food. Our teams are adjusting water levels to support buoyancy and comfort as part of his care,\u201d Bechara said.<\/p>\n

She said they work to stabilize and rehabilitate rescued manatees so they can ultimately be returned to the wild.<\/p>\n

The protected species is still recovering from a mass starvation event. In 2021, officials recorded more than 1,100 manatee deaths<\/a>, mostly caused by starvation. The state\u2019s fish and wildlife agency said deaths have gone down significantly, with 565 deaths recorded in 2024, and 555 deaths in 2023.<\/p>\n

Last year, SeaWorld Orlando rescued 56 manatees and has already taken in seven this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A manatee that got stuck in a Florida storm drain while seeking warmer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[69916,1313,64,63,6045,17881,8103,2755,482,242088,10570,128,224294,242089,242090,40293,488,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-475007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-amusement-parks","9":"tag-animals","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-climate","13":"tag-climate-and-environment","14":"tag-fl-state-wire","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-manatees","18":"tag-natural-disasters","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-send-to-apple-news","21":"tag-stephanie-bechara","22":"tag-terry-cronin","23":"tag-trending-news","24":"tag-u-s-news","25":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}