NEAR CLEARWATER, Fla. (WSVN) —Touching a manatee is against the law, but that didn’t stop some people on a Central Florida beach from putting their hands on the gentle giants.
A drone video of a group of manatees near Clearwater showed the moment some beachgoers crossed the line by illegally touching the endangered creatures.
“There were plenty of people that just had to touch them and chase them around,” said Michael McCarthy.
In one part of the video, a man was seen nearly running over by a massive manatee that can weigh in at more than 1,000 pounds.
“It’s a little surprising, but not uncommon for things like this to happen,” said Marie Filipek, a senior animal care professional at Zoo Tampa.
Filipek said people need to give manatees their space.
“They will come closer to shore, usually, it’s in mating herd, so it will be a group of males and one female that they are trying to breed,” Filipek said. “So, definitely in that case, you want to give them their space and let nature do its thing. We don’t want to interfere with that. We want these animals populating as they are an endangered species, so we don’t want to interfere with that.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said harassing manatees in any way can lead to fines of up to $100,0000 and even jail time.
“They couldn’t really go anywhere, though, because the crowd followed them when they tried to move up or down the beach,” said McCarthy.
The number of manatee deaths has been alarmingly high in recent years.
The FWC reported at least 800 deaths last year, and a record 1,100 died in 2021.
If you see someone harassing manatees, you are urged to call the Wildlife Alert Hotline number at 888-404-FWCC.
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