{"id":130480,"date":"2025-09-03T19:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/130480\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T19:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:54:10","slug":"rare-manatee-sighting-halts-txdot-ferry-project-along-texas-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/130480\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare manatee sighting halts TxDOT ferry project along Texas coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A rare manatee sighting temporarily stopped construction at the Port Aransas ferry project for environmental protection.<\/p>\n<p>PORT ARANSAS, Texas \u2014 A <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TxDOT_Corpus\/status\/1962958010042417582\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">rare manatee<\/a> sighting briefly halted construction at the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TxDOT_Corpus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Texas Department of Transportation\u2019s\u00a0<\/a>Port Aransas ferry project, with the agency citing its commitment to both safety and environmental stewardship.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nProtecting people and wildlife                    <\/p>\n<p>TxDOT said its top priority is the safety of the public, contractors, and employees, but that protecting wildlife is also part of its mission.<\/p>\n<p>The agency said has built dozens of wildlife crossings along highways to safeguard ocelots and other animals, and added \u201cbat houses\u201d under bridges to provide safe roosting spaces for nocturnal insect-eaters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe safety of the public, our contractors, and TxDOT employees is always our top priority,\u201d said Mike Walsh, TxDOT district engineer in Corpus Christi. \u201cBut protecting wildlife near our projects is also critical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">TxDOT Pauses Construction to Protect Manatee <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S6DbrdafLD\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/S6DbrdafLD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TxDOT Corpus Christi (@TxDOT_Corpus) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TxDOT_Corpus\/status\/1962958010042417582?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 2, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n$64 million ferry project                    <\/p>\n<p>TxDOT is in the midst of a $64 million project to upgrade the Port Aransas ferry system\u2019s ramps and landings.<\/p>\n<p>During the project, construction crews spotted a West Indian manatee in the waters adjacent to the site. The endangered and federally protected animals are rarely seen in Texas waters, though sightings have been reported in recent months. Manatees are known to migrate from Mexico and Florida during the summer.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nQuick action by crews                    <\/p>\n<p>Before work began, TxDOT educated construction personnel about how to identify and report manatees and other protected wildlife. When the manatee was spotted, Russell Marine crews immediately reported the sighting, and construction was paused during the animal\u2019s short visit.<\/p>\n<p>The manatee showed no signs of distress and remained near the ferry operations for several hours before moving west along the shoreline toward Corpus Christi Bay. Once the animal left, construction safely resumed.<\/p>\n<p>Got a news tip or story idea? Text it to us at 713-526-1111.<\/p>\n<p>    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rare manatee sighting temporarily stopped construction at the Port Aransas ferry project for environmental protection. PORT ARANSAS,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-130480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}