SATELLITE BEACH, Fla. – As soon as Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers realized what an enormous task rescuing six manatees (which soon became 19) backed up nose to tail in a Brevard County corrugated drain pipe, the officers called SeaWorld.
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"We get a call there were six to eight animals in a storm pipe," said John Peterson, Sea World animal care supervisor. "We put our crew together at 6 o'clock at night and sent them out to Satellite Beach."
Peterson, a 22-year SeaWorld veteran with 15 of those years rescuing animals in trouble, said rescuers immediately loaded up equipment they might need. And much of it came in handy.
"The biggest challenge yesterday is you have 19 animals in a drain pipe," said Peterson. "These pipes are only 30-40 inches big around. We have to figure out how to get a 500, 800, 2,000 pound animal, not knowing how big they are, out of these pipes. Cut the pipe off and take them out the top, that's what we ended up on the last 13 doing. The first six we were able to back them back out. A mother and calf were in there, the chance of a calf getting crushed or drowning because they can't get up for air are always massive concerns."
Peterson believes the manatees swam into the pipe several days ago after prolonged cold weather.
"They're trying to find a warm source," said Peterson. "Local water coming through is warmer what they're in so they think it's warm water and unfortunately they go right up the pipe. Yesterday was warm but that doesn't change a week of being in the 30's. When you look at the highs in the 60s and lows in the 30s, that water temperature drops and drops. It'll take a couple weeks before that water temperature starts to climb back up."
The drain pipe carries runoff storm water from under the street out to the Intracoastal Waterway.
"You know a manatee can swim forward really well and get into warm areas but unfortunately they can't swim backwards," said Peterson. "That means they either have to scull backwards or turn around. So when they go up a small pipe there's no room to turn around, and when you have one manatee behind you and one in front of you, it just doesn't happen."
Peterson said rescuers didn't finish until almost 2 a.m. Tuesday, when they released the last of 19 manatees into open water. All 19 were thoroughly checked and photographed and deemed healthy enough to be released.
"That's a really, really good rescue, it doesn't always work that way," said Peterson. "Normally when you have an endeavor like this you're going to fall into so many problems that will slow you down, this ran as smooth as you can ask for a rescue of this size."
Peterson said all drains should have covers or grates on them, but occasionally shift or slide off. He said manatee rescues from drain pipes aren't unusual, but a rescue of this magnitude is uncommon.