ONLY ON NEWS 5: Death of a manatee and the dollars and cents of studying marine mammals
WARNING: This story depicts a dead manatee in Baldwin County. Viewer discretion is advised.
BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG) — Along the shoreline of Perdido Bay, after the latest storm front rolled through, something was on the beach.
“Walking out on the pier like we typically do and saw him up here on the beach,” Chris Elliott said.
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It was a dead manatee, one of the gentle giants of the underwater world.
“I knew who to call, called the Dauphin Island Sea Lab,” Elliott said. “They do great work, and they will come a retrieve the animal and then study the animal.”
Within 24 hours, Senior Marine Scientist Dr. Ruth Carmichael and Manatee Stranding Network volunteers arrived to collect the mature male manatee and try to determine why he died.
“This time of year, our initial thoughts are cold stress related, but unfortunately we won’t know until we do what is called a necropsy,” Dr. Carmichael said.
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The manatee is now in cold storage, and we may never know what killed it because the scientists and program that would find those answers and learn more about the manatee has been de-funded.
“Unfortunately this year our program is not funded,” Dr. Carmichael said. “So technically, we are all out here as volunteers on our own time and our own dime.”
The program is dependent on federal and state funds. This year it got nothing. “We don’t have funding if there is an animal that is in distress, that needs a bigger type intervention and we don’t have funding to do that necropsy to determine the cause of death at this time,” said Carmichael.
That’s why ‘where’ this particular manatee washed up is important. Chris Elliott is a state senator representing Baldwin County.
“That is certainly something I will be looking into to make sure we restore that funding or find additional funding for them to continue to do this work,” Elliott said.
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It is important work, according to Carmichael, as the manatee is making a comeback and returning to the waters it used to frequent in large numbers so long ago, the waters along Alabama’s Gulf Coast.
Even without funding the Manatee Stranding Network is still operational with a hotline 1-866-493-5803, website and email available for sightings and strandings. Funding for dolphin, whale and sea turtle work by the Sea Lab is still intact.
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