Queridos amigos,

El Centro de Conservación de Manatíes permanecerá abierto todos los días para tratar manatíes enfermos, heridos y huérfanos y otra vida silvestre marina. Sin embargo, estaremos cerrados a visitas públicas. Además, se han modificado los siguientes programas y servicios:

• Nuestro programa de voluntariado se suspende temporeramente.
• Nuestro voluntariado estudiantil como parte de las clases se suspende temporeramente.
• Todos los programas educativos y visitas se cancelan hasta el 1 de abril de 2020.
• Todas las experiencias de cuidador por un día se cancelan hasta el 1 de abril de 2020.

Como todos, esta pandemia nos está afectando financieramente. Cuando sea posible, alentamos a nuestros seguidores y patrocinadores a que envíen sus donaciones o hagan una promesa de donativo para estos meses de primavera y verano. Es la única forma que podemos seguir rescatando y cuidando de animales silvestres.

Nos tocará a todos superar este evento pandémico, al mismo tiempo que cuidamos a nuestros manatíes, tortugas marinas y pelícanos rescatados. Juntos podremos.

Gracias y mantengámonos todos a salvo.

Dear Friends,

The Manatee Conservation Center will remain open daily to treat sick, injured, & orphaned manatees and other marine wildlife. However, we are now closed to public visitation. Additionally, the following programs and services have been modified:

• Our volunteer program is temporarily suspended.
• Our student volunteering as part of classes is temporarily suspended.
• All educational programs and visits are cancelled through 1 April 2020.
• All caretaker for a day experiences are cancelled through 1 April 2020.

Like everyone, we are being hit hard financially by this pandemic. When possible, we encourage supporters to maintain your donations coming or make a pledge for these spring and summer months. Is the only way we can continue to rescue and treat wildlife.

It is going to take from all of us to surpass this pandemic event, at the same time that we care for our rescued manatees, sea turtles and pelicans. Together we can.

Thank you and let’s all keep safe.

I am happy to announce that we successfully released back to the wild two manatees in Puerto Rico.

Tureygua and Mabo, both males, were rescued as calves in 2015 and 2016 in Isabela and San Juan, respectively. They were released today in the mouth of the Espíritu Santo River in Rio Grande at 475 lbs each.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all involved in the rescue and care of these two manatees, particularly the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Caribbean Ecological Services, and Inter American University, all instrumental in this accomplishment by their support, permitting and endorsement of the Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center . Gracias, gracias, gracias for their support on our conservation work. We thank as well the three veterinarians that worked with these manatees, Antonio Rivera, Ricardo Martínez and Lesly Cabrias that looked after their medical care. But of upmost importance, thanks are due to the entire staff of the Manatee Center and its over 60 volunteers, who day and night looked after the husbandry of the manatees and their tank habitats during these 4 years.

The manatees were fed through in-kind donations of Caribbean Produce, Hill Brothers, Econo, Costco, Puerto Rico Supply, Banco de Alimentos, as well as Coca-Cola Bottling Company (bottled water). Dallas World Aquarium, EcoElectrica, Plaza Las Americas, Georgia Aquarium, Coqui Charities, Laboratorio Clínico Jollymar, Bahia Beach Resort, among others, provided support for their rehabilitation as well. During the passing of Hurricane Irma and María through Puerto Rico, the organizations part of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership also donated supplies for the care of these two manatees. The contribution of all these “manatee friends” was key to our rehabilitation work with Tureygua and Mabo.

Both manatees will be monitored through satellite telemetry in cooperation with biologists from the foundation Alma de Bahía at Bahía Beach Resort.

Again, thank you for your help and participation in their rescue, rehabilitation and today’s release back to the wild.

Hoy personal del Centro de Conservación de Manaties en la Universidad Interamericana en Bayamón rescató una tortuga verde (Chelonia mydas) encontrada por el salvavidas Roger Palacios en el balneario de Punta Salinas en Toa Baja.

La tortuga verde juvenil se encontraba flotando por lo cual su carapacho está lleno de alga verde filamentosa. La misma presenta deshidratación, 5 tumores de fibropapiloma en el cuello y los ojos y esta muy bajo peso para su tamaño. La tortuga hembra de unos 46 cm (18 pulgadas) de largo y 10 kg de peso, se encontró débil y letárgica. Luego de ser examinada por veterinarios del Centro y ser hidratada con suero subcutáneo, el quelónido fue admitido a rehabilitación bajo cuidado crítico y en cuarentena.

La tortuga verde, o peje blanco como le dicen los pescadores en Puerto Rico, es una especie protegida por su estado de peligro de extinción alrededor de todo el mundo.

Herbivorous manatees in Puerto Rico feed on a variety of seagrasses. The four main species of seagrasses in their diet are manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme), turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum), paddle grass (Halophila decipiens) and shoal grass (Halodule wrightii).

While at the Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center we feed manatees in rehabilitation with different types of vegetables, mostly lettuce, close to the end of their rehabilitation and prior to being release back to the sea, they must learn to eat natural vegetation. For this, the Center offers manatees during the last 6-9 months prior to release, invasive freshwater plants (water lettuce [Pistia stratiotes], water hyacinths [Eichhornia crassipes], waterthyme [Hydrilla verticillata]), and a taste of local seagrasses (manatee and turtle grasses). A “taste” means that these seagrasses are offered, under permit, in limited quantities due to the protected nature of these flowering plants. But the invasive freshwater plants are abundant in lakes and rivers throughout Puerto Rico, and being invasive, it is legal to collect and destroy them as plants that can be detrimental to the environment. However, in this case their collection is for a good cause.

But recently, an unfortunate opportunity has open up to help manatees in rehabilitation get accustomed to a more natural marine diet prior to being released back to sea. Another invasive plant has been discovered in the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. This is a seagrass from the Red Sea and Indian Ocean named broad-leaf seagrass (Halophila stipulacea). The marine plant is now found spreading rapidly in different parts of Puerto Rico, particularly in Culebra, Ceiba and Jobos Bay, the latter two primary habitats for manatees. Biologists from the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service fear that it may compete and displace local populations of the other natural-occurring seagrasses.

The DNER is removing these in specific natural reserve areas, and in doing so, are offering the collected seagrass to the Center to train manatees scheduled for release onto eating natural marine vegetation. In October 2019, biologists from the DNER Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve delivered 20 kilograms of broad-leaf seagrass, which the two manatees scheduled for release in January 2020 ate readily.

While the Center does not expect to fulfill the entire dietary needs of manatees in rehabilitation with invasive plants, at least it is a way for naive manatees to hopefully understand that once in the wild, they need to feed on a variety of plants. They need to eat what ever plants are available, which in turn, provides them with a better chance of surviving. Thus, the use of invasive plants, both freshwater and marine, appear to serve endangered species conservation through their use as supplemental and pre-release diet training while under human care.

It is all a matter of taking a chance on opportunities, even if they come in the way of an invasive species problem. In a way, turning these opportunities into an aquatic plant fiesta for manatees.

Durante el día de ayer, Manejo de Emergencias de Salinas y el Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales rescataron una pequeña manatí huérfana en el sector Las Mareas del pueblo de Salinas. De inmediato, ésta fue transportada al Centro de Conservación de Manatíes del Recinto de Bayamón de la Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico para evaluación y cuidado.

La manatí cachorro se encontraba sola en la orilla en Mar Negro y residentes del lugar dieron aviso a las agencias de gobierno. Al llegar al Centro de Conservación, esta fue evaluada por el personal, y su tratamiento fue trazado por los veterinarios Antonio L. Rivera, Ricardo Fernández y Lesly Cabrias. Midió un poco menos de 4 pies de longitud y pesó unas 57 libras. Su estado de salud al presente es serio.

Esta bebé manatina, como se les llama en las crónicas de los españoles a las manatíes hembra, llega al Centro en medio de la celebración de la Semana de la Conservación del Manatí, la cual culmina internacionalmente el 7 de septiembre de cada año. Los manatíes están en peligro de extinción y tan solo quedan de unos 500 a 700 manatíes en Puerto Rico.

“El tratamiento y rehabilitación de estos cachorros que quedan huérfanos es una tarea ardua, ya que nos convertimos en nodrizas o madres sustitutas para ellos 24/7 hasta que estén estables,” dijo el doctor Mignucci, director del Centro y catedrático de ciencias marinas de la Universidad Interamericana. “La manatina estará en rehabilitación unos 2 ó 3 años en lo que se desteta y alcanza la edad y peso de liberación de unas 500 libras,” concluyó Mignucci.

El programa de rescate y rehabilitación del Centro de Conservación de Manatíes corre bajo permisos y en colaboración con el Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales, el Servicio de Pesca y Vida Silvestre y el Departamento de Agricultura, las ultimas dos, agencias federales. El Centro es una de las 12 facilidades autorizadas en los Estados Unidos para atender esta especie en peligro de extinción bajo cuidado humano, y una de las 5 que son consideradas hospitales de cuidado crítico cuando los manatíes son rescatados a nivel nacional.