Manatees regularly traverse the coastline and canals between the Haulover Bridge and Belize City.
But this morning, one was seen in a distressed state on one of those canals. Fortunately, he hadn't been hit by a propeller but the juvenile male was showing signs of poor nutrition.
The Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute responded and marine biologist Nicole Auil Gomez told us what they found:..
Nicole Auil Gomez, Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute
"Well we had a report of a manatee, a small manatee that was in the lagoon just north of Duke Marine and the security guard here express that the manatee had actually been here for about a week, which is unusual for a free ranging animal to be in one location like this. This is normally the type of situation where we find that the animal needs some care, an external examination - the skin is sloughing, it has a very narrow neck base, which means it hasn't been eating you can see a bit of back bone and when you turn it on its stomach, it has very lose skin indicating that it hasn't been eating for a while."
"It's a small animal, it's less than 2 meters, it could had still been with its mom or it could have possibly still been nursing. But it was found alone, there was no other animal with it. So we're erring on the side of caution and we are sending it up to Sarteneja, where they have the rehabilitation facilities there."
"And so it is important that we attempt, because not every attempt leads to success, but every attempt needs to be made. It's an endangered species, it's an endangered species globally and Belize has taken the responsibility and the commitment to take care of these animals for the population sake for the wider Caribbean but also for Belize sake as well."
The manatee has been named Duke because it was found near Duke Marine.
If it survives it could undergo a lengthy rehabilitation in Sarteneja.
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