Rare Sightings Spark Interest
in Mystery Manatee
Cape Cod Visit Sets New Manatee Migration Record
Manatee sightings along the northeast U.S. coast created quite a stir this summer and gained nationwide attention for the endangered animals. The sightings led some people to speculate that the manatee might just be Chessie, a manatee who gained notoriety when he was first spotted in the Chesapeake Bay in 1994.
But it appears as if Chessie might have some company.
“We received some excellent video from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and the manatee is not Chessie,” reported Cathy Beck, Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Sirenia Project, an agency that tracks manatees along the east coast of the United States. “We were hoping to match the scar patterns of the recently sighted manatee to another known Florida manatee, but unfortunately we had no luck,” said Beck.
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Above, Chessie during his 1994 stay at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD and at his release in Florida. (Top photo courtesy of the USGS Sirenia Project, bottom photo by Save the Manatee Club staff.)
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Chessie gained the attention of people all up and down the Eastern Seaboard when he was first sighted in the Chesapeake Bay in 1994. By the end of September, the weather turned cold, and Chessie showed no inclination to return home on his own, so he had to be rescued. A team that included experts from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Sea World of Florida, and the National Aquarium in Baltimore was assembled, and Save the Manatee Club provided financial support for the rescue. Chessie was tagged and released in Florida. Once summer came, he headed – you guessed it – back north again, setting an all-time manatee migration record by going as far as Point Judith, Rhode Island. Prior to that time, the farthest north a manatee had been sighted was in the Potomac River. In August 2001, Chessie was sighted again at the Great Bridge Locks in Virginia.
A semi-tropical species, manatees cannot usually tolerate water temperatures much lower than 68 degrees. In the summer months, manatees travel freely around Florida’s rivers and coastal waters. A few manatees may range as far west as Texas and as far north as Virginia, but these sightings are rare. Summer sightings in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina are relatively common.
The mystery manatee has been sighted in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. In fact, according to Beck, a sighting in Cape Cod breaks Chessie’s old migration record. “Cape Cod is the new northernmost record, to our knowledge,” she says.
But who is the manatee and are the sightings of one animal or two? The most recent manatee sighting took place on September 8 in New Jersey, off Long Beach Island, so we can only hope that he or she is now heading home for the winter. “It’s very interesting indeed,” says Beck.
Residents along the Eastern Seaboard should report manatee sightings to their local wildlife officials, or they can also e-mail Save the Manatee Club at education@savethemanatee.org or call 1-800-432-JOIN (5646). Photos are also helpful for manatee identification efforts.
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