FWC rescuing manatees after 4 found trapped in Largo pond

Crews rescue manatees stuck in pond after Helene

Kylie Jones reports

LARGO, Fla. - Biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission rescued all four manatees trapped in a pond at a Largo cemetery on Friday, all of which weighed hundreds of pounds. All four manatees passed health tests and were transferred to a nearby estuary.

Jonathan Veach, who works for the FWC said this isn’t uncommon, especially after a hurricane.

"Canals are another common place where the water will be high enough that they get over dams, and then they’re trapped in those canals," Veach said "This can happen even just during big tide events. King Tide, we can get this happening."

The discovery was made at Serenity Memorial Gardens in the days following Hurricane Helene.

FWC biologists will attempt to rescue several manatees trapped in a pond in Largo on Friday. (Courtesy: Serenity Gardens Memorial Park)

"We, a family that came in to visit one of their loved ones, and saw that the manatees were there," said Carrie Orozco, general manager at the funeral home. "Upon further inspection, we were able to get out there and take a look. We found that there were five of them and one is actually a little baby calf. So we've got a mom in there with her baby and some others."

Staff immediately reported the finding to a contact with Florida Fish & Wildlife, who assured them the animals would be safe until they could be rescued.

"FWC has reassured us that they have plenty of food in our pond, a lot of the vegetation that they love," Orozco said. "So they are eating. They seem to be pretty happy. And we check on them daily, sometimes multiple times a day, just to see how they're doing. They will come up into the shallow area where we can see them. But other than that, they're not really paying attention to us."

Veach went on to explain that the process of rescuing stranded manatees is labor intensive and takes time and cordination.

"We try and separate the manatees the best we can," Veach said. "We kind of divide up the lake a little bit here with the nets that we use. And once we do that, once we’ve gotten eyes on the manatees with drones, we’ll wrap the net around and then we use manpower to pull them into shore here."

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This is not Orozco's first brush with the aquatic mammals. After Hurricane Idalia in late August 2023, an adult female found her way into the pond.

"They (compared the manatee's age to) a teenager; it wasn't quite a calf," Orozco recalled. "It was an adult. I think they said she weighed around 400 pounds when they were able to get her out and observe her."

One challenge in that instance was that Serenity, as staff lovingly named her, enjoyed hiding out.

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"(FWC) came out with kayaks, with johnboats to be able to find her. And she would stay underwater for a long amount of time. And so she was actually with us, I want to say a little over three weeks before they were able to prove she was actually here."

The cemetery's pond is fed from Church Creek, which connects to the Intracoastal Waterway. As storm surge increases, the manatees and other marine life are able to swim in. Once the storm surge lowers, they are unable to return on their own.

In a September 30 social media post, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission reported that its biologists had been responding to reports of stranded manatees caused by the hurricane.

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"If you encounter a stranded, injured or dead manatee, please do not attempt to handle it on your own," the post reads.

Instead, officials urge residents to call the commission's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922.

"Manatees stranded by storms may need immediate medical attention from wildlife experts," the agency said. "While our top priority has been to help residents and visitors of Florida recover from the impacts of Helene, we are also working swiftly to rehabilitate and conserve these gentle giants."

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