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Field Notes:
8/01/02-8/23/02:
Efforts have continued in the search for Trident at Blackpoint Marina. Unfortunately he has not been seen on any of the visits to the area. WT and Penny Husted (FWC) flew with a FWC officer on 8/6 to search for Trident from Homestead to Cutler Ridge. Twenty animals were seen, ten of which were in a mating herd. Unfortunately, we did not locate Trident. The FWC officer will be on the lookout for Trident when he is in the area.
7/10/02-7/31/02:
Efforts continued to try and locate Trident in the Black Point Marina area. Unfortunately, there have been no new sightings of Trident reported.
6/19/02-7/9/02:
Efforts continued to try and locate Trident in the Black Point Marina area. Unfortunately, there have been no new sightings of Trident.
6/1/02-6/18/02:
Efforts continued to try and locate Trident in the Black Point Marina area. Seven opportunistic visual attempts were conducted without success. Thank you to Dade County DERM for allowing WT to fly third seat during their aerial survey of the southern portion of Dade County on 6/17. Unfortunately, only six animals were seen from Card Sound to Key Biscayne. But to give people hope that Trident has not completely left the area and that he may still be out there, ten animals were seen by land at Black Point marina an hour after the flight observed five animals in the same area. Another huge thank you to Penny Husted (FWC) for all her help to coordinate the potential recapture of Trident and for securing WT a seat with the Dade County DERM flight. Also, Penny has been wonderful in filtering all the public visual calls she has received of the tagged animals in the south.
5/14/02-5/30/02:
Efforts continued to try and locate Trident in the Black Point Marina for recapture. Seven attempts were conducted with one successful visual. Trident was observed on 5/21 in the late afternoon cavorting with two other animals in the manatee sanctuary portion of Black Point Marina. He was only observed for 15 minutes before he disappeared into the mucky shadows.
4/22/02-5/13/02:
Trident made a move north to an area near Cutler and then traveled back to the Black Point during the week of 4/21-4/27. He was observed in the Black Point Marina manatee sanctuary on 4/25 with several other animals. Trident lost his belt, tether and tag on 4/26 just south of the Black Point Channel. It appears that the belt just slipped off again. Discussions at the Consortium meeting resulted in a decision to try and locate and tag Trident again. He will be outfitted this time with a belt that has had the foam broken down. Even though his last belt had not been on long enough to start the break down process, it is hoped that a broken down belt might stay on a bit longer. Permission was granted to freeze brand Trident between the shoulder blades. Trident is very identifiable from his tail, but obtaining a visual of his tail in the turbid waters of Black Point Marina is difficult. A freeze brand number on the upper half of his body will increase our probability that residents in the area will be able to identify him and call in their sightings. The freeze brand will also allow field biologist a better chance to identify him during routine searches in the Black Point Marina area. It was decided to keep him tagged long enough to photo document the freeze brand for future sightings.
It was also decided to use a PTT tag rather than a VHF tag based on the likelihood that he will only be able to be tagged for a short time. It is anticipated that the tagging equipment will slide off his tail again based on the peduncle and end of tail circumference being very close in size. Trident was seen in the Black Point Marina manatee sanctuary on 5/6 from 1045 to 1300. But because of boat troubles we were unable to attempt a recapture. Efforts will be made to try and locate Trident in the Black Point Marina each week. If spotted, Penny Husted (FWC-SE Field Station) will be notified so a capture crew can be assembled from the immediate surrounding area for a quicker response time. You can never judge how long an animal will stay in an area so we need to get a crew together quickly simulating a rescue scenario response.
4/8/02-4/21/02:
Trident’s routine health assessment was conducted on 4/9. The capture team consisted of staff from the following organizations: Dade County DERM, Walt Disney World-Living Seas, FWC, Miami Seaquarium, Mote, SeaWorld and Wildlife Trust. The first attempt to capture Trident resulted in us only catching his belt, tether and tag, which had fallen off sometime prior to the capture attempt (no more than 48 hours earlier). The belt had slipped off his tail. It had been noted over the past few weeks that his belt was getting very low on his tail. Based on Trident’s pattern of feeding south of Black Point and/or resting in Black Point Marina manatee sanctuary, we were able to locate him in the sanctuary. Trident was captured at 1433 after two attempts. It should be noted that no other animals were captured during either attempt. His body condition looked “good” per DVM Andy Stamper with a weight of 800 lbs (weight on 2/5 was 805 lbs, thus a weight loss of 5 lbs). Initial blood values also looked “good” with additional values still pending. Blubber values were not taken due to a change in personnel availability. Trident was outfitted with a new belt but due to his streamline tail, we may have difficulty keeping him belted. Because his tail does not flare out, the circumference around the peduncle is very close to the circumference at the end of the tail. We will see what happens over the next few months. On 4/12, Trident was observed bottom resting in Black Point Marine manatee sanctuary with Myriah. On 4/18, Trident was heard east of the channel leading into Black Point Marina but was too far out for a land visual. But later that evening, he was observed traveling in the channel into the Black Point Marina manatee sanctuary following another animal. Interestingly, Trident was mimicking everything the other animal was doing. If the animal swam at the surface, so did Trident. If the other animal dove down deep, so did Trident.
4/10/02 Health Assessment:
Tridents capture started out bad because all we caught was his belt, tether and tag on the first "attempt". It had been noted over the past few weeks that his belt was getting very low on his tail. In fact, Trident was moved up to "1st" to be capture for this trip with the fear that the belt would fall off soon. We were right about that... Luckily, due to his pattern of feeding south of Black Point and/or resting in Black Point marina's manatee sanctuary, the search was on for him in the sanctuary based on environmental conditions being poor in the open water areas (winds 20-25mph, i.e., lots of waves). There were lots of manatees in the basin with minimal water clarity. Penny (FWC) kayaked around while others looked from the banks and towered boats to pick out Trident's identifiable tail. He was spotted by Penny and after the second attempt he was captured. It should be noted that no other animals were captured during this process. His body condition looked very good with a weight of 800 lbs. Initial blood values also looked good with additional values pending. He was outfitted with a new belt but due to his streamline tail, we may have difficulty keeping him belted. For those not familiar with Trident case, he received damage to his tail due to cold stress and is missing some of his tail. Because his tail does not flare out, the circumference around the peduncle is very close to the circumference at the end of the tail. We will see what happens over the next few months.
3/25/02-4/7/02:
Trident continued to move between the manatee sanctuary inside Black Point marina and the sea grass beds just south of Black Point. While in the sanctuary, he has been observed bottom resting with two to twelve animals in the area. On 4/3, Trident was observed socializing with three other animals. He was observed slowly traveling along the edge of the channel towards Black Point marina on 4/4. Based on visual observations that Trident's belt appeared to be getting lower on his tail, underwater observation was conducted via snorkeling to determine how loose the belt was and if the potential existed that the belt would fall off. It was determined that the belt definitely needed replacing upon the health assessment scheduled for 4/10. Overall, Trident looked good. No apparent fat rolls but his belly was round.
3/11/02-3/24/02:
Trident continued to use the area just south of Black Point and the basin within the Black Point Marina. On 3/15, he was observed bottom resting inside the manatee sanctuary zone within the Black Point Marina with eight other animals. On 3/16, he had moved out of the basin and was observed feeding with three animals twenty feet from the channel that leads into the marina. This channel is very active on the weekends. We observed three to five boats going by us per minute during our observation period. Most people going slow but it was amazing the numbers. Trident was observed again on 3/21inside the manatee sanctuary zone within the Black Point Marina bottom resting with two other animals.
2/24/02-3/10/02:
Trident moved out of Snapper Creek around 2/23 and traveled sixteen miles south to Homestead Marina area were he was seen alone by a public sighting. He was milling around North Canal on 2/26 alone and surface resting alone in the Mowry Canal on 2/28. Trident moved north approximately five miles to Black Point around 3/3. He was observed alone on 3/4 in the Black Point Marina milling around the basin. Trident was observed with approximately seven other manatees on 3/9 in the Black Point Marina basin. He was the smallest of the bunch and would stay on the outskirts of the manatee group most of the time, approaching periodically then moving back away. Attempts will be made this week to observe body condition via underwater observation.
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