{"id":153577,"date":"2026-02-12T22:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/153577\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T22:19:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:19:24","slug":"manatees-rehabilitated-at-seaworld-sent-back-into-the-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/153577\/","title":{"rendered":"Manatees rehabilitated at SeaWorld sent back into the wild"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ORANGE CITY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0At <a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridastateparks.org\/parks-and-trails\/blue-spring-state-park\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Blue Spring State Park<\/a> in Volusia County, three manatees rehabilitated at SeaWorld Orlando\u00a0are now back in the wild.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>Three manatees\u00a0rehabilitated at SeaWorld Orlando\u00a0are now back in the wild at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City<br \/>\n<br \/>Carditee, Crawford and Lilypad all arrived as orphaned calves and are now healthy\u00a0<br \/>\n<br \/>The Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute spent Thursday morning tagging the manatees for post-release monitoring<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTotally unexpected. We were here for a hike, and there the manatees were,\u201d said Daniel Stark, a Blue Spring State Park visitor on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>CardiTee, Crawford and Lilypad all arrived as orphaned calves and are now healthy and ready to return to their native habitats.<\/p>\n<p>The Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute spent Thursday morning tagging the manatees for post-release monitoring.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ll be tracked for approximately one year to monitor feeding, migration and overall success.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0212_n13_manatee_seaworld_event_2.jpeg\" alt=\"The Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute spent Thursday morning tagging the manatees for post-release monitoring. (Spectrum News\/Devin Martin)\" class=\"hashed-image image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-hundred\" loading=\"lazy\" img-data-caption=\"The Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute spent Thursday morning tagging the manatees for post-release monitoring. (Spectrum News\/Devin Martin)\" img-data-wrap-text=\"true\" img-data-editing=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute spent Thursday morning tagging the manatees for post-release monitoring. (Spectrum News\/Devin Martin)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter a year, we\u2019re able to give them a health assessment, get some bloodwork, take a weight, make sure they\u2019re doing good. Hopefully, then we no longer have to intervene, and they are completely successful out on their own. They can add to the population and do what they\u2019re supposed to do,\u201d said Veronica Veara with SeaWorld Orlando.<\/p>\n<p>A SeaWorld Orlando spokesperson said it has rescued seven manatees this year.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, they rescued 57.<\/p>\n<p>Janet Oehl and her husband, Michael, have seen a lot on their travels. They are glad they got to see the manatees Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s good to be at the right place at the right time,\u201d Michael Oehl said.<\/p>\n<p>SeaWorld Orlando has more <a href=\"https:\/\/seaworld.com\/orlando\/animal-experiences\/manatee-rehabilitation-area\/?srsltid=AfmBOoo_mqa7kOruDVEfqAzYkPH1EpjhDulRys2kwVWtqKeAyRhw4zpj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">information on its Manatee Rehabilitation Area on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0212_n13_manatee_seaworld_event_3.jpeg\" alt=\"Park visitors look on Thursday. (Spectrum News\/Devin Martin)\" class=\"hashed-image image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-hundred\" loading=\"lazy\" img-data-caption=\"Blue Spring State Park visitors look on Thursday as manatees are released. (Spectrum News\/Devin Martin)\" img-data-wrap-text=\"true\" img-data-editing=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Blue Spring State Park visitors look on Thursday as manatees are released. (Spectrum News\/Devin Martin)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE CITY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0At Blue Spring State Park in Volusia County, three manatees rehabilitated at SeaWorld Orlando\u00a0are now&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,770,43147,28,1190,139,141,140,135,278,2261],"class_list":{"0":"post-153577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-top-stories","9":"tag-community-news","10":"tag-devin-martin","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-human-interest","13":"tag-orlando","14":"tag-orlando-headlines","15":"tag-orlando-news","16":"tag-tampa","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-volusia-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}