Three female manatees were released back into the wild Thursday at Volusia County’s Blue Spring State Park, after spending several years being rehabilitated at SeaWorld Orlando.
All three manatees initially came to the park’s rescue center as orphans, from different locations in north central Florida, and have made great strides since being rescued.
“We were able to take them in and raise them. We were able to get them on formula or a bottle, just depending on the animal. And we were able to get them nice and healthy,” said Veronica Veara, a senior zoological specialist with SeaWorld Orlando.
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The manatees have names: CardiTee, Lilypad and Clawford. CardiTee and Clawford were rescued from the St. Augustine area, while Lilypad was rescued from Salt Springs in the Ocala National Forest.
Each manatee must weigh at least 600 pounds before being released, Veara said. At the time of their rescues in 2023, at least two of the orphaned manatee calves weighed less than 100 pounds.
CardiTee, the third calf released at Blue Spring Thursday, is a repeat rescue case. Originally rescued as an orphan calf in 2020, she was later released back into the wild but then had to be re-rescued twice last year. The first time, it was because she’d gotten stuck in a mud bank. Later, in December, she was noted to be in poor body condition and was brought back into care.
Before releasing each manatee, specialists fitted a passive tracking device, called a satellite tag. The tag looks like a little buoy that floats just above the water, trailing each manatee’s path. It’s tethered to a foam belt that is looped around the manatee just above its tail.
Over the next year or so, researchers with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute will monitor data from those satellite tags to ensure all three manatees are making good progress. The tags collect data, including location and water temperature data, that can help researchers track where the manatees are finding food and warm water sites.
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For Veara and other animal experts on site, moments like these are incredibly rewarding: releasing a manatee back into the wild, after working to restore it to better health.
“Release days are obviously one of our favorite days, for all of us on the team. It is a really big moment for these animals' lives,” Veara said.
It was a special moment, too, for state park guests who just happened to be in the right place at the right time to witness Thursday’s manatee release. Among those guests were groups of students from Spring Creek Charter School, as well as Michael and Janet Oehl, retirees from North Carolina, who said they were camping in the park with their dogs when they heard about the release event.
“We made our way down here on the bikes and got a position here. Very fortunate,” Michael Oehl said. “It’s just another example of how much fun it is to travel around this country, and see the many offerings that the country has … This is one of those special times right here.”
Janet Oehl became emotional, watching a cluster of manatees in the spring flock over to Lilypad as soon as she was released.
“It's not the first time that God's beautiful nature has brought me to tears,” she said.
Cora Berchem with Save the Manatee Club said she conducts research almost daily at Blue Spring State Park, counting and tracking the manatees. Most manatees have some scars, Berchem said, usually from boat strikes. Those unique scars help researchers identify and monitor individual manatees over time.
“We can track some of them back seven generations now, which is pretty amazing,” Berchem said.
As of Feb. 6, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission data show at least 18 manatees have been rescued statewide so far this year. That number doesn’t include a manatee rescued earlier this week from a storm drain in Melbourne Beach. That male manatee “teenager” is now recovering at SeaWorld.
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Last year, a total 119 manatees were rescued, according to FWC data. Those rescues were most often “natural,” a category that includes manatees rescued due to disease, cold stress, birth complications, natural accidents and natural disasters. The second-most common type of rescue last year was for 33 manatees injured by watercraft.
The third-most common rescue type, “calf by itself,” was assigned to 17 manatee rescue cases.
Initially rescued as orphans, the three manatees released Thursday are no longer alone. Upon entering Blue Spring, each one received what looked to be a warm, curious greeting, from clusters of wild manatees that zoomed right on over to the newbies. Experts hope the three new arrivals will follow and learn from those manatees, including when it comes to finding food.
“We put them in there and they swam off, hopefully socializing right away with some of these other manatees, which is what we want to see,” Berchem said.
