CLEARWATER, Fla. - A manatee that was entangled in rope and crab traps in Clearwater Bay was rescued last week by multiple agencies, including the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
According to FWC, they were alerted on Thursday to a manatee that was entangled in line wrapped several times around its peduncle within a mile of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium at Island Estates.
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Due to rain and bad weather conditions, teams weren't able to respond. The next day, FWC's Marine Mammal Pathobiology Laboratory (MMPL) tagged the 9.5-foot animal with a radio tag, and members of the CMA team tried to rescue it. Due to the number of other manatees in the area, though, their efforts were unsuccessful.
"We continued to assist with scouting for the animal over the weekend and tracking reports, and the animal was consistently reported in waters within or nearby Island Estates," said Hannah Rogers, Senior Rescue Biologist at CMA.
On Monday, officials with the aquarium were told of a possible animal in the Mandalay channel but couldn't see any entanglement, buoy, or tag, according to FWC.
A rescue team member in a kayak was able to see the radio tag under the surface of the water and verified this was the entangled manatee.
Crews then found that in addition to its entanglement by rope, the line holding the manatee was attached to four stone crab traps. FWC disentangled the animal, completed a workup of the animal, and then released it.