MIAMI – The Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership is helping the three manatees that the Miami Seaquarium freed, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Tuesday.
The federal agency described the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership as “a cooperative of agencies, organizations, and oceanaria” to rescue and rehabilitate manatees.
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Carli Segelson, a spokesperson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, reported the trio appeared to be experiencing “health issues” and described two as being of “advanced” age.
“The transport of these three manatees is currently underway,” Segelson wrote in a statement describing the process as “high risk.”
The Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership released a statement later reporting the three manatees — identified as Clarity, Romeo, and Juliet — were “successfully transported” to SeaWorld Orlando and ZooTampa, two of only three critical care centers for manatees in the country.
“They are now undergoing thorough veterinary examinations,” Segelson wrote in a statement released on Tuesday afternoon.
SeaWorld Orlando is caring for Clarity, an adult female manatee that had suffered watercraft-related injuries in 2009, and ZooTampa offered to temporarily care for Romeo and Juliet.
Cynthia Stringfield, a ZooTampa veterinarian, told The Tampa Bay Times, that she had traveled from Miami to Tampa for over four hours with the male manatee and they had arrived at about 1:30 p.m.
“Romeo did extremely well during the transport. He’s a very old manatee, and that was a lot for him. But he got to the zoo with no problems at all,” Stringfield said.
Juliet arrived over two hours later. The Miami Seaquarium reported Romeo and Juliet were among the first manatees “rescued” in 1956, and “were the first manatees to conceive offspring in human care.”
In November, 11-time world surfer champ Kelly Slater joined the worldwide “Free Romeo” campaign by UrgentSeas, an animal advocacy organization. Earlier this week, a drone video showing the manatee alone in a tank away from the public at the Miami Seaquarium went viral.
“Romeo, Juliet and another manatee have been removed from the Miami Seaquarium and are currently en route to their new homes,” Phil Demers, of Urgent Seas, announced on Tuesday. “WE DID IT!!! #FreedRomeo.”
In August, The Miami Seaquarium announced the death of Lolita at 56 years old in the tank at the park in Miami’s Virginia Key. Orcas can live up to at least 90 years in the wild.
The federal agency reported ZooTampa, Clearwater Marine Aquarium, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission provided the trucks to transport the manatees.
Other parties involved in the transport included the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, University of Florida, Mote Marine Lab, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, and Save the Manatee Club.
This is a developing story.
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