The Rescue of Dennis the Manatee
Apparently Seamless Effort Was the Result of Many Days’ Preparation
Oct 15, 2008
The Cape Cod Stranding Network, now a project of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, drew on its many years of marine mammal mass stranding responses to organize the monitoring and eventual rescue of Dennis the manatee. The manatee rescue team from SeaWorld, working far from their support base in Florida, benefited from a community used to pulling together to help marine mammals in trouble.
The Cape Cod Stranding Network
CCSN has been rescuing marine mammals on Cape Cod since the mid-1980s, originally as an informal coalition of conservation organizations. In 1998, CCSN was incorporated and today, with 5 paid staff and a large volunteer force, the network responds whenever a marine mammal is in trouble on Cape Cod.
Marine Mammal Mass Strandings
Cape Cod is one of the top three locations in the world for mass strandings of whales and dolphins. Australia and New Zealand also have regular and frequent incidents. These mass strandings require the concerted efforts of many organizations and individuals from harbormasters to law enforcement officials. The cooperation and support of local people on Cape Cod has resulted in steadily increasing success with both preventing mass strandings and minimizing mortality when multiple animals strand.
Dennis the Manatee on Cape Cod
CCSN first had reports of a manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) in the area more than a week before efforts were begun to rescue Dennis. Manatees have been seen near the Cape in the past but none had made their way into Cape Cod Bay. Cape Cod Stranding Network staff was in regular contact with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (the federal agency charged with manatee conservation) as decisions were made about dealing with a manatee in the rapidly cooling waters of Cape Cod.
The Manatee Rescue
Viewed from the public perspective it may have seemed like a team of experts zoomed in and pulled the manatee from the water on Saturday morning. But action really began earlier in the week. Nets, slings and other rescue gear, boats and trucks had to be organized. Agencies that needed to be involved-Sea World, USFWS, the Town of Dennis police and fire departments and the Sesuit Harbormaster to name just a few- had to be able to coordinate activities.
Volunteers from CCSN were first needed in numbers on Thursday. Reports of Dennis the manatee on local news stations were drawing crowds. Public education, as well as crowd control to prevent stressing the manatee, was the order of the day. At one point, the manatee was next to one of the docks and CCSN volunteers and town officials had to organize a steadily moving line so that as many people as possible could see this rare marine visitor.
On Saturday those volunteers who spent time talking to the public, explaining what was happening and the need for quiet and calm, were an important part of the manatee rescue attempt. By aiding the local agencies in crowd control and allowing the rescue team to work uninterrupted they smoothed the way for the team on the water.
Other volunteers functioned as spotters while Dennis wandered among the docks, making it difficult for the boats to track the manatee. Many of those volunteers were the arms and strong backs that helped lift Dennis the manatee from the water. Whoever was closest when the call for equipment was made became go-fer, ensuring that Sea World and CCSN capture experts had whatever they needed at hand.
These roles were only slightly altered by the fact that a manatee and not a pod of dolphins was being rescued. The dockside café provided lunch, boat owners quietly waited for the rescue to be completed on what was probably one of the few remaining warm fall days to be on the water.
While the death of Dennis the manatee was not the outcome hoped for, the town of Dennis, Sea World, the USFWS, and the Cape Cod Stranding Network have reason to be pleased with the smooth way the manatee rescue effort came off.
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