Even in the intense summer heat, visitors flock to Clearwater Beach for sun, scenery and soft white sand. Two arrived at the end of July. They’ve spent their stay swimming in the rooftop pool, regaining their strength and energy after serious health problems, and consuming massive quantities of leafy greens on a daily basis. Their names are Yeti and Zamboni and they’re the first patients at Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s new manatee rehabilitation center.
Their stay in the tourism mecca will no doubt last much longer than most. But these lumbering gentle giants will eventually return home to Florida’s waters when their rehab is complete. In the meantime, Yeti and Zamboni have become quite a hit with the aquarium’s visitors. During a September 13th ceremony celebrating the opening of the rehabilitation center, Clearwater Marine Aquarium CEO Joe Handy says that type of response can only help the effort to protect and conserve the manatee population.
“That’s what we’re in the business of doing...We know that the connectivity between humans and animals is extremely important,” Handy says. “It is part of our mission. It is our responsibility to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to appreciate these beautiful majestic animals.”
Strengthening the partnership
With the new rehabilitation center, Clearwater Marine Aquarium takes on a larger conservation role in the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership. That consortium of state and federal agencies, aquariums, zoos, conservation groups and research centers collaborates on the rescue, rehabilitation, release and monitoring of sick and injured manatees.
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Clearwater Marine AquariumThe Clearwater Marine Aquarium manatee rehabilitation center's first two patients, Yeti and Zamboni, were both suffering from cold stress when rescued early this year.Yeti and Zamboni are prime examples of how the partners work together. Both manatees developed dire cases of cold stress last winter that left them malnourished and underweight. Zamboni weighed 306 pounds when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and ZooTampa rescued him in Placido Bayou in Pinellas County in late January. Yeti weighed 365 pounds when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, ZooTampa and U.S. Fish and Wildlife rescued him in Citrus County’s Kings Bay in mid-February.
The two manatees were first treated at ZooTampa’s critical care facility. After their conditions stabilized, they were transferred across the bay to Clearwater. By taking over care at that point, Clearwater Marine Aquarium helps the state’s three critical care facilities- ZooTampa, SeaWorld Orlando and Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens - focus on the most serious cases.
ZooTampa’s Senior Director of Animal Programs Tiffany Burns, president of the rescue and rehabilitation partnership, says that creates a more robust network of care for the state’s iconic but threatened manatees. It’s a crucial role when 80 manatees were rescued off West Florida in 2023, Burns says.
In 2022, then-Florida House member Chris Latvala secured $3.5 million to build rooftop rehabilitation pools at the aquarium, part of $20 million in that year’s state budget to expand manatee rehabilitation facilities statewide. The state-of-the-art technology at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s rehabilitation center includes ozone treatment and medical habitats with false bottoms.
Speaking at the September 13th event, Latvala, now a Pinellas County commissioner, recalls when the aquarium in Island Estates first landed on the national stage.
“CMA has long been an asset in our community,” Latvala says. “In 2005 though, a dolphin rescued by CMA named Winter changed everything. Winter inspired children, veterans and people from around the world. One dolphin led to two movies and millions of dollars in economic impact to our area. Winter also led to a rapid expansion of CMA.”
Latvala jumps ahead to 2013 when he and Chris Sprowls visited the aquarium before their election to the Florida House to watch the filming of “Dolphin Tale 2.” Nearly a decade later, then-House Speaker Sprowls played a pivotal role in securing the money for the manatee rehabilitation center.
Clearwater Marine Aquarium has worked on manatee rescue, release and monitoring
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Clearwater Marine AquariumClearwater Marine Aquarium has worked on manatee rescue, release and monitoring for decades. Now it adds rehabilitation for over 20 years. Chief Zoological Officer and Research Institute Executive Director James “Buddy” Powell says expanding into rehabilitation brings the aquarium full circle. It also introduced a new challenge.
“We have to prepare them for life back in the very difficult world of the wild,” Powell says at the September 13th event. “Here we tend to coddle them. Out there, it’s very difficult. So we’re not only going to be treating them medically but also behaviorally to set them up for success once they’re released.
A dream come true
For Powell, the new rehabilitation center is “a dream come true.”
He started studying manatees more than 50 years ago as a teenager growing up in Crystal River “where literally we had manatees in our backyard.” Early on, he worked with the first person to study manatees in the wild. Because of that research, Crystal River became the first National Wildlife Refuge for manatees and Powell’s career trajectory rose.
During that career, he’s worked for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Wildlife Conservaton Society, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Wildlife Trust. He’s studied manatees in West Africa and Belize. Powell joined Clearwater Marine Aquarium in 2019 when the Sea to Shore Alliance, a nonprofit research organization he co-founded, merged with the aquarium and became the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute
Bringing on one of the world’s foremost manatee experts, and his research and conservation projects, was a shot in the arm for the aquarium. The Clearwater Marine Aquarium has a manatee conservation program in Belize and works on rescue, rehabilitation, release and monitoring in the Dominican Republic and across the Caribbean. In September, Clearwater Marine Aquarium expanded that presence, co-founding the Wider Caribbean Manatee Alliance with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. The newly minted group will work to research and conserve a manatee population that faces threats from habitat loss, poaching, entanglement in fishing gear, watercraft collisions and climate change.