The above seal is that of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center located in Brigantine, N.J. This group is dedicated to saving stranded or endangered marine mammals as well as sea turtles. On the morning of October 27th, the stranding center would embark on a very different mission. It is pretty well known that a Manatee named Ilya had wandered into the waters of New Jersey and had been in the warm waters of an oil refinery for several weeks. The manatee was loosing weight and needed to get back to the warm waters of Florida. With winter quickly coming the odds of him making it home on his own were impossible. For this mission the Marine Stranding Center would be joined by the Point Pleasant Beach Dive Team, a vet from Florida, a manatee rescue expert from Florida, many refinery staff members, and myself. Why I was invited to the rescue is still a little bit of a mystery. I'm told that my relations with the Dive Team, Sea Shepherd, and other conservation organizations are the reasons I was invited. Needless to say I jumped on the oppertunity. All in all there was easily over 30 people trying to rescue the manatee. The rest of this blog is how I viewed the rescue, all opinions are my own and I have every right to express them.I'm woken up by my father around 5:00am and get ready to head out to the first aid building. My adreniline was pumping from the moment I woke up. It's my first chance to really make a difference and help a marine animal. This was my chance to actually do something instead of spreading information. By 5:45am we were on the road. Myself, my father, and two other members of the Dive Team were in an ambulance following the Dive Truck that held two other members of the team. We met up with two more members of the Dive Team along the way bringing us to a team of 8. Upon arrival to the refinery we went through the security check and met up with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. When I say if you dropped a lit match the enitre place would explode I mean it. This place was huge and the water far from pleasant. Certainly no place for a manatee, but the steam coming off the water hinted to just how warm the water was. Once we got our gear on it was time for a breifing from the refineray saftey crew as well as the manatee capture expert. We had our jobs and we took to it. Myself and the Dive Chief were the first two of our team to see the manatee. All we could see was his nose. He looked like a big Gray Seal until I saw his massive body.
We kept an eye on the manatee while other members of the team and the stranding center readied the boats with a massive net. The plan was to get the manatee into the net, get him onshore, then transport him to the stranding center. Easier said than done of course. The refineray employees worked on baiting Ilya with some lettuce which he ate very happily. Once it became clear that Ilya was not going to leave the bridge from where he was being fed, a couple divers swam closer to him. Sure enough Ilya moved into the range of the net. Four times Ilya managed to escape the net. The bottom of the river was riddled with things that the net could get snagged on slowing our progress of pulling Ilya in was only part of the problem. An incoming tide and a massive hole at the bottom of the river allowed Ilya to escape from under the net every time. It was discouraging with the repeated failure, but every time we failed we were relieved to see Ilya pop back up under the bridge for more lettuce. Ilya fooled us all once and popped up behind one of the boats. At that point we thought we were going to loose him as he seemed to be leaving the area, but sure enough about five minutes later he was eating again. With the time coming in quickly we breaked for lunch. By now the constant cold rain had me feeling pretty cold, so to get out of the water for a little bit was nice. The refinery workers had set up a big tent for us all to hang out under, which was great. They also ordered about 30 pizzas and bottles of soda for our lunch. They seemed really grateful that we were there.
After lunch the tide was just about all the way in, so it was back to work on trying to catch Ilya. The third time we tried to catch Ilya was the biggest failure. We managed to catch one of the divers in the net. He freed himself, but Ilya was nowhere to be seen. Some of the refinery workers kept saying they saw him in the net so we prepared to drag him in. When the net came up it was empty and sure enough Ilya was back at the bridge eating as usual. Clearly our plan was not working, so the manatee expert went to another part of the river and discovered that the bottom there was not riddled with debries and seemed to be generally flat. That was where we needed to get Ilya if we wanted to have any hope of getting him out of there. The one problem with this area was that it was much further away from where Ilya was eating and the only way he would be able to run would be out to sea should he avoid the net again. The Dive Team took their positions and swam slowely behind Ilya as he made his way down river. I was on the net team as myself and two vets waited for Ilya to get in the net. When Ilya started testing the net we quickly trapped him with the boat circling the net around him. So far so good and Ilya showed no signs of panic at all. We slowley brought Ilya into the shallow water. By this time some of the Dive Team joined in with myself and the Stranding Center people to help bring him in. As Ilya came up out of the water there were three things to notice. 1.) Ilya was huge weighing in at easily over 1000 pounds. He was extremely tough to pull up onto shore 2.) Ilya did not like the idea of leaving the water. 3.) Ilya was not alone in the net. He was with a nice sized Stripped Bass as well as a big Blue Claw Crab.
Once we got Ilya on shore he freaked out throwing his massive body 3-5 feet in the air several times then slamming on the ground. I could feel the ground shake when he hit it. He nearly landed on the bass, but fortunatly the fish flopped away just in time. The crab let go of the net and got back into the water as Ilya was dragged onshore. Once Ilya settled down roughly 15 men, including myself jumped on him to try to restrain him. He gave in rather quickly and settled down. The vets the sedated him, during the sedation he tried again to throw himself, and it literally took everyone to prevent him from doing it. Manatees are said to be 1000 pounds of muscle. I believe it now. Once the drugs took hold we had to lift him out of the net and onto a massive stretcher that had to be lifted by crane over to the tent. It took about 15 of us to lift Ilya onto mat for the crane. Once at the tent we wrapped Ilya in a weird foil to keep him warm and splashed water on him so he would breathe. I had the privlidge of feeding Ilya some vet prepared stuff.....through his nose.... Manatees are mammals, but need water so we had to get him down to the stranding center ASAP.
We left the refinary and made our way all the way down to the Stranding Center. By now it was around 7:00pm and we were all basically exhausted. We had one more task to accomplish and that was to life Ilya out of the truck and into the pool at the stranding center. Again it took about 15 people to hoist Ilya and get him to where he needed to be. Once in the water we all watched and waited. At first Ilya just laid there, probably from the meds, but then came up for a breath. The founder of the stranding center threw a head of lettuce into the pool which sure enough Ilya began to eat. The mission was a sucess. We made our way back to Point Pleasant exhausted, but very happy with the job we did. Ilya is now back in Florida at Miamiday Aquarium where he will enjoy 100 pounds of lettuce a day until he gains his weight back and is ready to return to the wild.
For me this was an experience of a lifetime and would not trade it for anything. I never even thought I'd see a manatee let alone assist in the rescuing of one of natures most amazing creatures.
