Rita the manatee recovered dead:

It is with sadness that the MRP announces the death of Rita.  She spent almost 27 years at SeaWorld Florida after having her right flipper entangled in a crab trap before she was released by the MRP with satellite tracking equipment on 2/26/09.  By all accounts Sea2Shore Alliance, who was tracking Rita, felt she was doing very well and appeared to be adapting to the wild.  She demonstrated good boat avoidance behavior, selected good manatee habitat, and was seen feeding on numerous occasions. She was even seen in a mating group in May. However, she lost her tag just before the July 4^th holiday weekend. A few days later her tag was discovered in Lake Monroe within the normal range she had been using.  The tag had gotten caught on a dock and broke at the weak link.  Sea2Shore had been searching for Rita in her previous range when her body was discovered in the St Johns River near Astor, Florida, 45 miles north of her last reported location.

The Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab (MMPL) in St Petersburg performed a necropsy to determine the cause of death. Unfortunately her body was fairly decomposed when it was discovered which means close examination of all the organs was not possible. However, the necropsy showed no signs of human or boat interaction. No broken bones, external wounds, or other signs of trauma were found.  There were no foreign bodies in her digestive tract. She had abundant fat stores. Scraped-off skin on her sides and underside indicated she had recently been involved in mating.  Based on these preliminary findings, MMPL scientists believe that  exhaustion related to the recent move and mating may have played a role in her death which was officially placed in the category “Natural-other”.