James "Buddy" Powell shows off several large tanks that are being repurposed as part of a new manatee rehabilitation center at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. The tanks are equipped with elevators that lift injured manatees to new emergency rooms, where they can be operated on.
Powell is the aquarium's chief zoological officer and one of the world's foremost experts on manatees. He grew up in Crystal River, where the warm-water springs harbor scores of the gentle creatures every winter.
Powell described their work as akin to first responders.
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“If an animal has come in that has been injured by a boat or is starving or succumbed to red tide, they come in kind of like an emergency room,” Powell said. “And that's the sort of the next step is that we're building out over here, which is essentially going to be hospital space that will have all sorts of equipment — just like you'd find an emergency room for people.
“So this will become a what's called critical care space, the emergency treatment space for the manatees.”
They'll start out being able to treat a couple of manatees that were rescued as orphans. Those will likely stay here until next winter, until they are old enough to be released into the wild. Then, the new center will be able to treat six to eight animals, as larger pools come into operation.
“I think if manatees were not as resilient as they are, given everything that's kind of thrown at them to survive, we probably wouldn't have manatees in the state right now,” Powell said. “But we give them that sort of extra help to make sure that the population is stable.”
He says red tide makes their work even more critical.
“One of the things about us here at Clearwater Marine Aquarium is we're very strategically located right here on the Gulf of Mexico, which is the heart of red tide,” Powell said, “so that we'll be able to provide at some point the critical care so that they don't have to be transported across the state.”
“When you look at some of the injuries these animals come in with, you know, broken bones and punctured lungs or going through convulsions because they've been exposed to red tide or all their ribs are showing and so forth. Just given a little extra help, they'll make it.”
Clearwater Marine Aquarium is one of only 10 manatee hospitals in the state.
They're part of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership, which includes Sea World, Disney, ZooTampa, Mote Marine Laboratory and the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton — even as far away as the zoo in Columbus, Ohio, to treat these gentle creatures.
When asked why places like Cincinnati and Columbus — places far away from the ocean — were taking in injured manatees, Powell said it's basically all hands on deck to try to save them.
“We are right now responding to a need that essentially all the pool space — bed space — for manatees in Florida has reached capacity,” Powell said. “And so we'll actually take manatees from Florida, move them up to Columbus, where they'll be treated, and then bring them back here and put them back out into the wild.”
A big picture window toward the bottom of one of the renovated pools here will allow people to see them swim underwater. A wall in the middle will prevent people from seeing them as they are being operated on.
“The purpose is not to exhibit them, but actually to treat them to get them back out into the wild,” Powell said. “And the purpose of getting them back out into the wild is to help with the recovery of the species, making more manatees part of the breeding population.”
Satellite tags will be attached to their tails to act as a tracker when they're released back into the gulf.
Funding of $5.9 million for this project was made possible by the state of Florida; the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; Duke Energy Foundation; John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program; and other private donors and foundations.
Powell said they still have a funding gap and are looking for more donors.
This is the first phase of their aquarium’s Rising Tides project, which aims to raise $32 million over the next six years.
In addition to an already planned expansion of its manatee rehab facility, the aquarium will expand its facilities to help dolphins, sea turtles — and for the first time, sharks, albino alligators, penguins and California sea lions.
The aquarium also plans to break ground this summer on a new marine rescue center in the Central American nation of Belize. Its CMA Research Institute has rescued and released manatees for 20 years in Belize, which has the highest known density of Antillean manatees in the world.
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