Some pictures and notes from the TECO releases on 2/26/04:

From Monica Ross, Conservation Biologist for Wildlife Trust who is tracking these animals:

Desoto, Salvador and New Bay were released at TECO Power Plant this morning.  There were only three other manatees in the canal.  A cold front is expected to hit the area tonight/tomorrow so hopefully more animals will return to TECO within the next couple of days. 

Salvador made his way towards the mouth of the canal within an hour of release.  New Bay and Desoto milled around near the end of the canal for about thirty minutes after their releases and then began to bottom rest underneath the viewing platform. 

All three released animals and two other manatees were observed in the early afternoon cavorting all over the place.  Primary target was poor New Bay (the female), closely followed by Salvador. Great behaviors observed!

Unfortunately, Desoto's VHF beacon somehow has already stopped working (dang new GPS tags).  A temporary VHF tag was attached to the tether to assist in locating Desoto soon when we hope to change his tag out to another GPS tag. 

I want to thank the staff at TECO for their extra effort and support.  We greatly appreciated the new fence opening that allowed us to safely transport of the manatees from the parking lot to the water!  Our backs thank you too!!!

The release of De Soto, New Bay, and Salvador was a media event. The manatees made the evening news!

It took a big crew to get the manatees down to the water in giant stretchers for release.

Once the stretcher reaches the water, the manatee is released.