Beachgoers in Monmouth County found an unlikely friend near the Shark River inlet last weekend. A manatee was spotted swimming in a lagoon Saturday, thousands of miles away from its native habitat. 

While confirmed sightings have dried up since Sunday, officials say they’re keeping tabs on the rogue traveler — and even have an idea of who this mysterious manatee is.

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The Marine Mammal Stranding Center has theorized that the animal is the same manatee reported near Cape Cod earlier this summer. That swimmer was the first manatee reported off the Massachusetts peninsula in almost a decade, and it sent New England scientists into high alert. The species, which thrives in the warm climates of the southeastern United States and Caribbean, can experience “cold stress” in waters under 68 degrees. The condition can lead to malnutrition and even death.

While the MMSC believes the Cape Cod manatee has traveled south to New Jersey, the center said it has been unable to make a positive identification absent clearer photos. Staff wrote on social media that the animal “has not required direct intervention” as of Wednesday. Still, the MMSC is monitoring the manatee’s movements and asking anyone who spots the manatee to report its location at 609-266-0538. That hotline is manned 24 hours a day. Anyone who spots the manatee should maintain 150 feet of distance and refrain from feeding it, the MMSC added.

The center said it has only responded to five manatee strandings in New Jersey since 1978. The most famous of these incidents occurred in October 2009, when the MMSC rescued a 1,100-pound manatee near an oil refinery in Linden. The animal, named Ilya, warmed up in a pool at the center’s Brigantine headquarters. Once he was stabilized, a Coast Guard aircraft transported him to an aquarium in Miami for further rehabilitation. He was released into the wild that December, and lived for another nine years. Ilya died in 2018 after colliding with watercraft in the Florida Keys.

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