BOSTON (AP) — A manatee was recently spotted off the coast of Massachusetts for the first time in almost a decade and scientists want to monitor its condition to see if a rescue is necessary before it succumbs to the cold water or lack of food, they said Friday.
The threatened species, which makes its habitat in warmer southern Gulf waters in places like Florida, was first seen July 26 off the southwestern coast of Cape Cod in the area of Nantucket Sound. Mashpee resident Jennifer Sullivan took a video of it swimming alongside paddle boarders in an inlet behind a marina surrounded by sea grass.
She said on Monday that she found the manatee, which was as long and wide as her paddleboard, “just lazing around there in the grass going as slowly as possible.”
“It was completely unfazed by us,” said Sullivan, who went on to say she felt “just in awe of how graceful the creature was and to be so close in the wild to it.”
A few days later, the animal was seen stranded on the tidal flats in Mattapoisett. Bystanders who found the manatee beached on the flats around sunrise pushed it back into the water, said Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries Protected Species Program Manager Erin Burke.
It hasn’t been spotted since, Burke said, but a team with the International Fund for Animal Welfare is standing by to rescue the animal if it becomes necessary.
The species prefers swimming in warmer waters, usually traveling only as far north as the Carolinas. If the manatee stays in water that is too cold for too long, it could suffer severe illness or death, said New England Aquarium Research Scientist Dr. Nadine Lysiak.
Additionally, manatees are herbivores that sustain themselves on extensive seagrass beds and mangroves not typically found in New England.
“Even if it doesn’t experience cold stunning, it may have some health declines associated with not having enough food, not having enough water,” she said. “So it’s important to intervene as…