A worker with the International Fund for Animal Welfare photographed Ilya the manatee on Cape Cod in Orleans last month.(M. Holmes/Ifaw
)
Wayward manatee stalls in N.J.
After Cape getaway, manatee kicks back in warm N.J. water
A worker with the International Fund for Animal Welfare photographed Ilya the manatee on Cape Cod in Orleans last month.(M. Holmes/Ifaw
)
Have flippers, will travel.
On an estimated 2,000-mile tour of the East Coast, a Florida manatee seems to be doing a lot of sightseeing since July. After spending time off Cape Cod last month, the nearly 8-foot-long mammal has now turned up near New York City.
Ilya relaxed in Elizabeth, N.J., yesterday in a 70-degree-plus tributary, heated by a discharge of warm water from an oil refinery.
Manatees are in danger of hypothermia in waters cooler than 68 degrees.
The warm temperature “is what attracted the animal to begin with, and that’s what’s keeping it there,’’ said Chuck Underwood, a spokesman for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which has officials supervising the animal.
Plans are to rescue Ilya when the weather improves, perhaps this weekend, and transport him via plane or truck back to Florida.
“From a rescue aspect, the good thing is it’s staying in one area,’’ Underwood said.
“Our biggest concern is it’s too late in the season for it to swim back down the coast. . . . There’s a higher degree chance of it succumbing to hypothermia.’’
Ilya was first spotted in the North Atlantic Ocean on July 22 in Chesapeake Bay.
A month later, he was off New Jersey and then Connecticut on Sept. 2.
Scientists identified him by distinctive notches in his tail.
He made it to Cape Cod by mid-September, and was seen several times near Dennis and Orleans.
A few days later, a fisherman reported a manatee heading south through the Cape Cod Canal. A week later, another report placed him off Connecticut again.
Then a refinery worker was startled by the several-hundred-pound animal near shore in New Jersey on Thursday morning.
“Nothing has been normal about this animal,’’ said Chris Cutter, spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, based in Yarmouth Port, which has tracked the sea cow’s progress.
Ilya, first identified by scientists in 1994, is the third manatee spotted off New England in four years. This summer is the first time Ilya has been seen north of his Florida home.
Several manatees have been recorded making the North Atlantic migration since 1994, but scientists still do not know why they do it.
“It’s not unheard of,’’ said Underwood.
“But why some make it and why some don’t, we couldn’t tell you. . . . And I don’t think we’ll ever understand.’’
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