Manatee survives after difficult rescue

Even from the sky, you can see the propeller marks on the manatee's back. It's a female. She weighs nearly one thousand pounds and she's likely been struck by a boat.A Florida Fish and Wildlife team boated to her rescue to try and help Friday.Rescues are often difficult and this one was no different.After a short chase, the team manages to reel her in.Once on board the manatee struggles, knocking not one, but two of the team members overboard.After the crew members recovered and the manatee settled down, they took her to shore."At The Lowry Park Zoo, that's what our whole program is about. It's acute care and rehab of the Florida Manatee," explained to Dave Murphy, a staff veterinarian.This manatee, like many others, wound up at The Manatee Hospital at The Lowry Park Zoo. There, they've treated and saved more than 200 manatees over the last 15 years.Just last week, a female manatee named Grand Prix, who came to the zoo last March, was finally released.Grand Prix had suffered severe injuries from a boat propeller. It took weeks to nurse her back to health."When we get them in and they're injured and damaged and we can do something about that, fix them and patch them up and get them back out to go support the manatee population, boy that is really rewarding for us," added Murphy.Not every manatee is so lucky. Biologists say collisions with boats still account for about one in every four manatee deaths. Officials believe that's a number that could and should be reduced."What we always like to say is we don't want anyone to not go out on the water, but just watch out for those no wake zones and go slow where you need to," offered Virginia Edmonds of The Lowry Park Zoo.The zoo's latest project will be a tough one. As of Friday night, the manatee was in critical condition. Making matters worse, biologists suspect the manatee may be pregnant.Of course, they hope they'll be able to rehabilitate her and add her to the list of success stories.Shannon Mulaire FOX13