The Fish and Wildlife Service says that as its staff monitors the flow of the black crude across the Gulf, they will use aerial flights to
monitor manatees and other wildlife. They hope to have about 72 hours to respond to save manatees unknowingly swimming in the path of the oil --
including physically moving these mammals, which can reach 10 feet long and weigh 1,200 pounds. Rescue teams are staging gear and will be ready to
move in if necessary to try and capture manatees in distress.
But rescuing large numbers of manatees has never been done before. Is it realistic to capture large numbers of the sometimes uncooperative
mammal?
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This whole thing is a gigantic mess. The manatee population is thought to be upto 5000 and they have rescue groups standing by to spring into action,
but this seems to me a monumental task. Hopefully this won't spell the end to these awesome creatures,but it seems to be a dark time we are living
in.
They have upto 5 centers were they can take them to be cleaned up and they will not release any till the crisis is over....
Yes lets not forget the animals and other lifeforms potentially that could be lost in this disaster. I think we all should quit with the "spill not
that big of a deal" threads. Do any of us claim to be experts in the realm of oil being spilled? I mean I spill enough oil in my garage and its a
hell of a time trying to clean that stuff up!
The manatees have been my biggest concern animal-wise during this. It's possible that this time two years from now they'll all be gone for good, and
I haven't gotten to nuzzle up to one yet...