An adolescent manatee is recovering at SeaWorld Orlando after being rescued from a storm drain in Melbourne Beach.
Animal specialists caring for the male manatee believe he likely got stuck in the drain while seeking refuge from cold waters. The manatee was rescued from the drain Monday night, by a crew of people with Brevard County Fire Rescue, the University of Florida’s Veterinary Emergency Treatment Services and other partners.
Mallorie McCormack, a senior zoological specialist on SeaWorld’s rescue team, praised the collaborative rescue effort.
“I love that everyone came together to help this one individual manatee,” McCormack said. “It is very, very fortunate that he was spotted in that storm drain — that someone was able to find him and inform FWC, so that they could begin those rescue efforts.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission tracks manatee rescues and deaths. As of last Friday, agency data show 18 manatees had been rescued this year, including two others in Brevard.
When wintertime water temperatures drop into the 60’s, most manatees will seek warmth in freshwater springs or power plant discharge areas. But cold stress poses a real threat. By this time last year, 22 manatees had died from cold stress, statewide; that number rose to 33 by the end of 2025.
So far this year, at least seven manatees have died from cold stress, including two in Brevard. Rescue crews with FWC have been working to respond to those deaths as well as to cases of live, cold-stressed manatees.
Wintertime tends to be the busy season for SeaWorld’s rescue teams, which have also recently been helping care for various species of cold-stressed turtles.
RELATED: Cold temperatures prompt animal rescues in Central Florida and beyond
The manatee rescued in Melbourne Beach didn’t have major signs of cold stress. But he arrived at SeaWorld a “bit on the thinner side for his size,” McCormack said, weighing about 410 pounds and measuring about 213 centimeters, or just under 7 feet.
Although he didn’t eat much on the night of his rescue, the manatee showed “much, much greater interest” in food the following morning, McCormack said.
“He has already shown great signs of improvement. So I'm cautiously optimistic in his recovery,” McCormack said Tuesday afternoon. “He has started to eat, which is wonderful.”
Another positive indicator: after initially hovering close to the bottom of SeaWorld’s shallow medical pool, the rescued manatee is “already moving around a lot better,” McCormack said.
“His buoyancy was heavier in the water column, meaning that he kind of stuck to the bottom of the shallow medical pool that we had him in, using more energy to come up to the surface,” McCormack said. “That's most likely because he was stuck in that storm drain, not using his muscles accordingly, and he was probably really, really stiff and cold.”
Now back to warmer water, the manatee is using his swimming muscles once more. “It just takes a little bit of time for him to get used to that again,” McCormack said.
The goal is to stabilize and rehabilitate the manatee, so he can ultimately be returned back to the wild once it’s safe. In the meantime, McCormack said, she’s grateful to be a part of his story.
“I would love for everyone to keep caring for manatees, and watching out and seeing if they see any manatees in distress or that are in need of rescue,” McCormack said.
To report a manatee in distress, you can call FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922. The agency also offers other suggestions for how members of the public can help manatees, including by using designated bins to recycle monofilament fishing line.
