Brooks

2/22/06: Una spent most of her time trying to avoid an orphan manatee from nursing on her for several hours after her release.

3/19/06: Una's tag stopped transmitting Wednesday 3/15 at 4:45pm. She had traveled north along the St. John's River into Lake Dexter on the 13th and was beginning to make her way south again during the late afternoon of the 15th when her tag stopped. We have not been able to relocate her at this time but hope we can get a plane up this week to help our search efforts.

4/5/06: Una's tag stopped working on 4/4/06. Her tag's VHF signal has not been heard but her belt signal was faintly picked up in the Lake Beresford/St. Johns River area today. We will be attempting to change out her tag as soon as possible.

4/13/06: Today, James heard Una just north of I-4 bridge along the St. Johns. She does not have a floating tag and we could not pick up a sonic in the area (tag should have working sonic, should is the word). We could not get close enough to her to see if she had a sunk tag still attached to her but will continue our efforts next week to get a working tag on her one way or another.

4/19/06: Yes, that is right folks it was a double clip on day.

Kat in her excellent tracking abilities was so kind to find both animals near each other in Lake Beresford. They were so close together that when I retagged the first animal we had no idea who was retagged. Water visibility was only 8 inches so I never saw a manatee just felt a manatee with a belt. After about a half hour of trying to figure out who we retagged, Una was kind enough to move away from Dundee's side. Dundee at this point was completely passed out resting and I was even able to remove some of his old tagging hardware.

Una was retagged shortly after Dundee due to her curious state. She kept going by me while I floated at the surface. The only clue we had that she was there were the bubbles coming towards me and then going away from me (I kept repeating to myself during the first approaching bubble stream..."please be a manatee, please be a manatee"). She was not very approachable after retagging but what I could feel of her belt area, I am pretty sure she does not have a sunk tag or old tether still attached to her belt. Again, I saw nothing just quick touches around the belt before she bolted away from me.

5/11/06: Una has been traveling back and forth between Lake Monroe and the mouth of Wekiva River. Since her retagging on 4/19/06, we have seen her either with other animals in feeding locations or slowly traveling/milling alone.

6/6/06: Una was captured on 05/31/06 for her three month health assessment-finally. Since 5/18/06 , we have not been able to relocate Una. So we had arranged to have a plane up in the air with SeaWorld on standby if located. Kat Frisch was anxiously flying over to start her survey when I called her to let her know little Miss Una had just gone by me while I was getting gas across from Hontoon State Park . Figures! Kat went ahead and continued to search for Stoneman since she was in the area with the plane. While waiting for SeaWorld to arrive with capture crew I followed Una as she traveled alone down into Hontoon Dead River . She somehow managed to get a four foot wishbone stick stuck between her back and belt. So every time she would surface you would see a stick come up out of the water and then back down.

About ten minutes before SeaWorld arrived, Una joined up with another manatee. The other animal was larger than her and only stayed near the boat for about two minutes then proceeded to travel out of Hontoon Dead River . Una also started to move out of the immediate area and when an animal rolled and a belt was seen it was assumed it was Una. But right behind this animal was another animal surfacing with a stick with a belt…so guess who I saw….Stoneman!!!! It has now been confirmed his belt is not working. From what I could see of his upper back, he did not have any new scars and he did not look emaciated. He was not pacing and definitely avoiding the boat. We lost sight of him once he hit the St. Johns portion of the area.

Una was difficult to locate once she moved into the main river and a net set in this area was impossible since the depth can be over 20 feet. She eventually moved into a small cove area just east of Hontoon State Park basin. We were able to get a tag on her which made the capture go much faster after that. She was captured on the first attempt.

Blood, morphometrics, ultrasound and weight were obtained. Dr. Scott Gearhart from SeaWorld of Florida gave Una an overall condition of good, with a body score of 3. She had lost 155 lbs or 16% of her weight since her release on 02/22/06 . Her belly was round and she had not received any new scars. Blood values are pending.

Weight Straight Body Length

01/05/06 885 lbs 257 cm

02/22/06 980 lbs -----

05/31/06 825 lbs 257 cm

Prior to Una’s health assessment, a request had been made to the MRP not put another tag on her if she looked good during her assessment. This request was made due to the number of issues we have had keeping working equipment on her. The request was granted by the FMT and that was the plan before Stoneman was seen with Una. I made a decision in the field to tag Una one more time with the hopes she will join back up with Stoneman to give us a chance to locate and retag him. It is a long shot but with his equipment not working at all it will be impossible to find him without a little help. She is a social animal and has been remaining in the area that Stoneman had been utilizing before his equipment failed. Una was released with a smaller belt and a tag. She immediately swam over to another animal after release but we could not confirm who it was due to the muck in the water column.

Since Una’s capture, she has been seen with other manatees during every observation but to date she has not been with Stoneman. We will be going out on the water as many times as possible over the next few weeks to increase our odds. Keep your fingers crossed.

7/6/06:

Una's belt, tether and tag were recovered on 6/27/06 . The equipment was submerged and entangled in small twine string under a newly constructed dock in Lake Beresford. It appeared her buckle had gotten entangled with the twine and after four more loops of the material, Una broke her belt off at the belt weak link. We may get sightings of her based on her clearly visible freeze brands, but further tracking of her activities will be strictly opportunistic. Una had remained in the Lake Beresford-northern Hontoon Dead River area until her tag loss throughout the month of June.

10/19/06:

No new sightings on Una.

12/14/06:

Una (freeze brand A5) was sighted yesterday by FWC-Jax field station at a sewer outflow boil in the St. Johns River in Jacksonville. She was with two other animals and they were observed head bobbing with tails out of the water into the boil. Water temperature in the area was reported I believe around 18 with boil temperature slightly higher. Una thus has traveled over 130 miles since her release at Blue Spring in Feb 2006. We would very much like to get a tag on her...discussions are underway to determine how.

12/26/06:

Una (freeze brand A5) was sighted on 12/13/06 by FWC -Jax field station with two other manatees at a sewer outflow boil in the St. Johns River in Jacksonville . WT, FWC and JEA went out to try to freebelt Una to aid with recapture visibility but water clarity and animal movements were not optimal for retagging. Una was observed with two other manatees during this time. She had minor cold stress signs only on her nose while the other animals had cold stress signs on their tails. Una did not leave the area during our three hour visual but the other two animals did leave for unknown destinations. Water temp at the boil was approximately 20C, forty feet out from the direct outflow was 18C and river temp was 16C. A capture crew (consisting of FWC , JEA , GA DNR , USGS, Wildlife Trust, Volusia County , SeaWorld, UF and Jacksonville Zoo) was assembled by FWC on 12/19/06 to capture all three animals and relocate them to Blue Spring if in good condition. Only two animals were at the boil during the capture. Una was captured on the third set at 12:43 and transported to the boat ramp for her health assessment. Capture attempts continued for the other animals without success.

Blood, morphometrics, ultrasound, and weight were obtained for Una. Attending vet Dr. Jess Siegal-Willott from UF gave her an overall body condition of fair and M. Ross and B. Bonde gave her a body score of 3. Her belly skin was loose but was not flat nor were there any signs of vertical or longitudinal folds. Una had lost 176lbs (27%) since her last capture on 5/31/06 and 331lbs (34%) since her release on 2/22/06 . Una’s tail was slightly curved around the perimeter with the beginning signs of cold stress starting (white halo along perimeter). She showed slight whiting around the flippers near the body but nothing alarming to indicate acute cold stress Her body temperature was 33.4C upon first examination, dropped to 33.2C but was up to 33.7C prior to transport to Blue Spring at 3:50pm . Her heart rate was 40 upon first examination but was 60 prior to transport. Dr. Scott Gearhart from SeaWorld of Florida was contacted and consulted with results just prior to release at Blue Spring at approximately 6:30pm . He would have normally been the attending vet for Una’s health assessment but was unable to make the rescue due to other work commitments. Dr. Scott expressed concern about the large amount of weight loss and expressed the desire to do a follow-up health assessment in a month. Blood results are still pending.

Una was released into Blue Spring at the canoe launch site by WT, FWC , SWF, Volusia County and Blue Spring State Park staff at 6:48pm . River temperature was 18C and spring temperature was of course 22. Una slowly turned and swam into the spring run after her release and began socializing with other manatees (yes you can see things in the dark J). She finally moved out of the spring on 12/23/06 and 12/24/06 but for only a small amount of time. But on 12/25/06 , Una moved out of the run and remained out for over 24 hours in areas which are known feeding areas.

Thank you to everyone which made this relocation possible! Teamwork is an amazing thing!!

2/25/07:

Sticking close to Blue Spring but routinely travels out to feed about 1/2 mile south of the spring when temperatures are warm. Two weeks ago an underwater visual confirmed Una did have a round belly but was lean.

3/27/07:

Una was captured on 3/26/07 for what would have been her final health assessment except the decision was made during the last FMT meeting to keep her tagged through the next winter season due to her relocation from Jacksonville in December 2006. She has been moving back and forth in the St. Johns River between Blue Spring and a cove just south of the spring and has routinely been seen feeding on/off with other manatees. Una was alone and in a feeding area shortly before the capture arrived. She was caught on the first net set without much resistance just south of Blue Spring in the St. Johns River .

Blood, morphometrics, ultrasound and weight were obtained. Dr. Scott Gearhart from SeaWorld of Florida gave Una an overall condition of excellent, with a body score of 4-. Una had gained 116 lbs since her last relocation health assessment on 12/19/06 . Her belly was round and fecal looked normal. She did not have any scars and her freeze brands looked very identifiable (yeah). Blood values are pending.

Date Weight Straight Body Length

01/05/06 885 lbs 257 cm

02/22/06 980 lbs -----

05/31/06 825 lbs 257 cm

12/19/06 649 lbs 258 cm

03/26/07 765 lbs 253 cm

Ultrasound readings had minimal changes since last health assessment and readings were near to or above normal values. Girth measurements showed increases in the umbilicus and anus measurements with slight decrease in the peduncle area.

Una’s tag was changed due to battery life needs of her old tag. Her belt was loose but we did not change it to allow for growth this season. Una was considered to be in excellent condition and released back into the St. Johns River .

Thank you to the capture crew of SWF, FWC and Wildlife Trust’s volunteer for all your efforts during Una’s capture.

5/07/07:

On April 5, Lower Wekiva River off Marker 96 of the St. John 's River , Una was found to be at her favorite feeding lagoon between Marker 79 and 80.

Later in the day, Una was detected in the area of Indian Flats around Marker #84.

On April 17, James looked for Una around Lake Jesup but did not hear a signal. When he returned later that day he found Una behind his house boat with 9 other milling manatees. He tried for a tag exchange, but the group didn’t settle down -- when he entered the water they took off and left the area. James will attempt tag exchange again as the tag is not updating correctly.

Update as of 5/6 – Una now has an operational tag.

6/14/07:

On May 6, She’s in a great manatee habitat area, with lots of shoreline protection from wind and vegetation all around. Something must have caused her to remain in this same general area for several weeks with only a slight northeast move last week. GPS points were run to see how small of an area it really has been, w/ CLS not always indicating back/forth movements in a fine scale area. She was very skiddish of the boat -- not her normal behavior in the past. This type of behavior change has been documented by other studied animals who have received recent boat injuries. The good news is she did respond to the boat and was mobile. A body condition visual could not be obtained because of waves, poor visibility and our inability to get close to her.

On May 12, Una was seen in the St. John s River area with w/ 2 adults and one calf. Bottom resting most of the time -- when other animals went by, she slowly moved in their direction and entered a small cove with lots of vegetation. When we entered this cove two of the animals came out immediately and after 10 minutes she followed. We could not determine if she was feeding during the ten minute interval we watched her but that was possible due to her proximity to vegetation and tag activity. She was still skiddish of the boat and seemed to be moving around at a much slower pace than the other animals -- but she was moving and responsive. We had one opportunity to get a great body visual – unfortunately, the water clarity was about a foot...couldn't even see the bottom of the tag when she went by.

We were unable to do a tag exchange due to the numerous gators going back and forth across the creek near her. There were a minimum of 7-11 gators within 100 ft of her at any given time. You can really tell the males are staking out their territory for mating. One gator nose bumped the tag and then bit at it while she was resting but it was more of a bite attempt. Two other bumps to the tag were observed by two other gators but these two did not bite at it...they actually rubbed against the tag along the length of their body.

On May 16, Una was tracked by herself in the St. John s River area. She was bottom resting, did some traveling and was seen feeding on hydrilla/coontail mix.

She was a distance up Woodruff Creek when found bottom resting. Paddling the boat to about 100 ft from her, she woke up and traveled away --- immediately resumed bottom resting in her new location. Of concern was her respiration rate which between resting periods was only five minutes (her normal was 7-8min). This is a faster rate than what was observed last week (6 min intervals). The faster respiratory rate could have been due to the fact she wasn't completely resting...but we have noted the ‘waking-up’ rate in the past with other animals.

Two different gators bumped her tag -- she began to slowly travel out of the creek. When she got to the deeper portion of the creek just before it reaches Lake Monroe , she began to travel quickly and was even leaving foot prints behind while completely pulling her tag underwater. Much better traveling rate than what was seen last week. She settled down in the cove on the far east side of Lake Monroe (where we had found her several weeks ago). She appeared to be feeding on either hydrilla or coontail...both present in the area. Her tag was bumped by two more gators at this new location but she kept going back for more. Respiration rate while feeding was one breath every 90 seconds (little fast for her...normal rate for her was one breath every 2-3 minutes). Total travel distance from resting to feeding site was about 1/2 mile.

She appears to be coming out of the woods but still cautious because of abnormal respiration rate. Never had an animal take this long to start to move around after stagnant behavior.

On June 12, Una was tracked and found w/ 8 adults and 1 calf in the St. John s River area, in Lake Monroe . She was bottom resting, socializing and milling. The other animals were socializing and cavorting most of the time. Una was not as active as the other animals and was usually on the outskirts of any activity. She was only observed cavorting for a couple of minutes but she did follow other animals around alot. Food was available nearby, in a nice quiet cove.

6/21/07:

We attempted to do a tag exchange on Una on 6/18/07 and ran into some problems. First it took over an hour just to get a safety attached. She was extremely skittish of our boat and even more so of the swimmer. But when the safety was attached, a small nylon rope mass was noted attached to her tether. We routinely fine rope, weights, hooks and fishing line wrapped around the eye bolts so no alarms went off. But when the old GPS tag was removed, the safety tag sank immediately---UGH. Obviously the amount of nylon on the tether was more than anticipated and it sank the safety tag. Oddly, the GPS tag was floating normal so we did not anticipate a problem with the entanglement. Since she was extremely skittish of approach, water clarity was six inches and potential for further entanglement was high, SeaWorld was contacted and agreed to do capture Una on Thursday. We attempted for several hours to finish the tag exchange on 6/18 and then again the following day without any success in even seeing Una. We were numerous times right on top of the signals from her belt and VHF safety tag but could not locate her. Luck was on our side on 6/20 when we found her early in the morning feeding on top of Tape Grass which allowed her safety to be high enough to spot. A longer safety was attached, tag exchange complete, entanglement was cut off and capture for Thursday was canceled. Interestingly, the entanglement was a cast net made from nylon rope. It had worked its way up the tether and was primarily attached to the safety clip. The net was cut free from the tether while still attached to the safety tag but unfortunately it slipped off the clip and sank into the mud without being retrieved. Small remaining pieces of the net were cut from the tether and currently Una is entanglement free. Una appears to be recovering well from a boat strike we believe she received during the first week of May. She has one skeg mark and at least five prop cuts across the midline of her back. Good news is she in an excellent area with lots of food and has been routinely seen with many other animals.

9/18/07:

6/18/07 – 9/17/07

Una continued to utilized the east side of Lake Monroe and the adjacent creeks and coves. On 6/18/07 , we attempted to do a tag exchange but ran into some problems. First, it took over an hour just to get a safety attached. Una was extremely skiddish of our boat and of the swimmer. But when the safety was attached, a small nylon rope mass was noted attached to her tether. When the old GPS tag was removed, the safety tag sank immediately. Obviously the amount of nylon on the tether was more than anticipated. Oddly, the GPS tag was floating normally, so we did not anticipate a problem with the entanglement. Since she was extremely skiddish to approach, and water clarity was six inches with potential for further entanglement, SeaWorld was contacted for her capture. On 6/20, we found her early in the morning feeding on top of Tape Grass which allowed her safety to be high enough to spot. A longer safety was attached, tag exchange complete, entanglement was cut off and the Sea World capture was cancelled. The entanglement was a cast net made from nylon rope that had worked its way up the tether and was primarily attached to the safety clip. The net was cut free from the tether while still attached to the safety tag but unfortunately it slipped off the clip and sank into the mud without being retrieved. Small remaining pieces of the net were cut from the tether and currently Una is entanglement free.

Una appears to be recovering well from a boat strike we believe she received in the beginning of May. She has one skag mark and at least five prop cuts across the midline of her back. We routinely find Una feeding or resting with other animals. She appears to be alternating her food consumption between underwater vegetation (coontail, tape grass) to floating vegetation (water grass, water lettuce, pennywort and gator weed). These vegetations are located in two different locations and movement between areas are noted weekly. Una normally kepts a good distance away from the tracking boat or any other boat that comes near her. An interesting behavior was observed on 7/25/07. An animal came from the middle of Smokehouse Cove and made a straight-line fast swim to Una. Una woke up when the animal was about 50’ away, they touched noses, and then the other animal turned around and swam quickly back to where it had come from. Una then slowly, slowly swam in that direction where she met up w/ a feeding group and began to feed.

Another interesting behavior was observed on 8/3/07. We noted SFWMD spraying in the area around 9am on Friday 8/3/07 . Una travel alone from an area with ample underwater vegetation (that she has been observed feeding on) into this creek just after the area was treated. She approached and then declined to feed on the floating vegetation location sites she has been noted routinely feeding at over the past few months. The vegetation was already showing browning signs during this period. Interestingly, Una traveled back out of the creek and returned to the area where she’d been located earlier that morning. She immediately began to feed on the underwater vegetation.

Una's tag stopped transmitting on the morning of 9/8/07 NE of Lake Monroe. She was relocated on 9/11/07 and it was determined her tag was still attached to her. Wildlife Trust (WT) swimmer Monica Ross attempted to clip on a safety tag to change out Una's presumed sunk tag but Una was not approachable. After ninety minutes, the swim attempt was aborted but the situation was considered very odd. Normally when Una is aware of a swimmer, she will leave the area or circle the swimmer approximately 50-100 feet away. In this situation, she stayed in the area and was coming up to take breaks only 20-30 feet away. Her breaths were not labored and were approximately 2 1/2 to 5 minutes apart. We did discover a spring right where Una was centered so we thought possibly the site was more attractive than the need to leave the area due to our presence. But after watching her remain in the area when boats would go right over her location, we started to suspect she was entangled. Her normal response to boats passing in close proximity to her is to move completely out of the area and possibly return after 10-15 minutes. SeaWorld of Florida (SWF) was contacted around 1530 and arrangements were made that the following morning they would respond with their rescue boat if Una was determined to be entangled. And if it was just a sunk tag, depending on their staffing, they might be able to respond or we would need to schedule an alternate day. FWC Ann Spellman was notified by message of the potential entangled animal and the proposed plan for the following morning.

On 9/12/07 , WT attempted to get out to Una's last location by 9am but the boat would not start. James Wilkinson offered to take WT out on his small dingy but it also wouldn't start. WT proceeded to drive their second available boat down from the Hontoon area and arrived at Una's last location at 1238 where she was immediately spotted and observed struggling to free herself. It was noted that she had a 30ft radius she could swim from a center location. Respirations were normal (2-5 breaths per minute) and she did not appear to have difficulty coming up to the surface. SWF was notified and they immediately deployed their capture boat and crew to the site. FWC Ann Spellman was also advised of the situation. Once SWF arrived on site, plans to capture Una were discussed at length. A SWF swimmer attempted to approach Una to determine what she was entangled on but was unsuccessful. The capture boat was methodically anchored to position the back of the boat near the center of Una's tethered radius. Plans were discussed to have the tracking boat drag the net around the small area Una occupied. To make things more complicated, three manatees moved in/out of the area. Discussions persisted on how this whole entanglement situation was very dangerous for all involved, especially for Una. We were very concerned that the deployment of the net might further entangle her and keep her from being able to come up to breathe since we had no idea how she was currently being tethered to her current location. M.Ross offered to swim again to try and get close to Una to see how she was entangled. With the reference of the anchored boat, she was able to get on Una when she came up to breathe twice. It was determined that Una herself was not entangled but her tag had a net draping around it and that the net was tethered to two locations at 180 degree angle. The crew discussed and agreed on the option to scuba dive to cut the net free of the tag without the deployment of the capture net. A safety diver and a safety snorkeler were positioned while M. Ross dove down to the anchored point of the gear. The entangled tag was located just outside of the spring flow on the bottom. Most of the net was cut off the tag before Una began to try to swim away from M. Ross in a straight line. Once one of the anchored lines was cut, Una had mobility to drag the other line very quickly. M. Ross cut more of the net free and then cut the other anchored line. Una swam immediately away once the second anchored line was cut and her tag was able to float normally. There remained a small mass of net, about the size of a soft ball, on the tether that could not be removed with scissors. The entire underwater disentanglement took no more than two minutes to accomplish. Una moved away from the entanglement site and met up with two other animals very quickly. We attempted to separate the animals in an attempt to still catch Una since a small amount of net remained on the tether. Unfortunately, the animals stuck to each other like glue and eventually traveled into Smokehouse Cove's spatter dock vegetation making further capture attempts even more difficult. The capture was called off and considered a success since Una was able to move around freely. Thanks to SWF and WT volunteer James Wilkinson for all your efforts in helping Una out of her situation!

On 9/13/07 , WT attempted to remove the rest of the net from the tether but we were not able to get close to Una while swimming. She was very responsive and was primarily feeding during our four hour visual.

10/5/07:

Una was captured on 10/04/07 for her pre-winter health assessment just east of Lake Monroe in Woodruff Creek. Una was observed traveling up the creek alone the morning of the capture and was found milling along the shoreline when the capture crew arrived. She got out of the first net set by going under the lead lines and the second set either by going under lead lines or slipping through the net opening before it was completely closed. She was finally caught on the third set just before she reached the mouth of the creek.

Blood, morphometrics, ultrasound, weight and fecal were all obtained. Dr. Scott Gearhart from SeaWorld of Florida gave Una an overall condition of excellent, with a body score of 4. Una had gained 55 lbs since her last health assessment on 03/26/07 . Her belly was very round and fecal looked normal. She had belt indents on either side of her tail, probably obtained during her entanglement situation last month. The indented areas did not have broken skin but the areas were white and irritated. Una’s peduncle freezebrand was still easily identifiable (yeah) with the shoulder freezebrand partially visible. Blood values are pending.

Date Weight Straight Body Length

01/05/06 885 lbs 257 cm

02/22/06 980 lbs -----

05/31/06 825 lbs 257 cm

12/19/06 649 lbs 258 cm

03/26/07 765 lbs 253 cm

10/04/07 820 lbs 260 cm

Ultrasound readings had minimal changes since last health assessment and readings were near to or above normal values. Girth measurements showed increases for all measured areas and were also near to above normal values.

Una received a new belt, tether and tag. The belt was replaced due to antenna damage and the tether was replaced due to the mass of net wrapped along the rod portion of the tether (see pictures below). The entanglement contained many different types of net mesh and thread sizes and there appears to be a string of hooks also in the mass.

Una was released back into Woodruff Creek and immediately swam out of the creek into Lake Monroe . Today she is back in Smokehouse Cove just around the corner from the creek. Thank you to the capture crew of SeaWorld of Florida and Wildlife Trust’s volunteer James Wilkinson for all your efforts during Una’s capture.