Rescued manatee returned to river in Jacksonville after weeks of rehabilitation

JACKSONVILLE Fla WSVN A manatee that was discovered injured in a Florida river was disclosed back into the wild after weeks of rehabilitation It took a whole club to give the massive marine mammal named Koa by his family members another chance at life in the wild after it was struck by boat propellers leaving him scarred On Sept Elmer DePalma saw the over -pound sea cow floating in the Ortega River located in Jacksonville I saw this manatee kind of floating a little higher than normal commented DePalma Without delay he knew something was wrong with it So I watch it and it floated around came into the back waterway and it just couldn t submerge disclosed DePalma What no one knew in that moment was that Koa had suffered broken ribs and was unable to release air in order to descend into the water I got my camera out and zoomed in on it closer and it had chosen propeller marks on it where it had been hit by a boat so I called Nadia stated DePalma Nadia Lentz a marine mammal biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has tracked Koa s recovery since he was rescued from the river It was rehabilitated at SeaWorld and is now being issued back into its natural habitat declared Lentz After a two-and-a-half-hour ride from Orlando Koa was published just feet away from where he was rescued The -foot -pound mammal was slowly taken off the truck taking at least people to carry him Photos were taken and yellow marks were drawn on Koa s body to identify scar patterns before he was microchipped for tracking After being checked and measured one last time helpers and bureaucrats returned Koa back to his home Among those assistants were DePalma and others who witnessed Koa s rescue It feels good to do something like this urged a reporter Yes absolutely stated De-Palama Koa s story serves as a reminder for boaters to be on the lookout for manatees and slow down