Featured Image Credit: Video Screenshot
By: Laura O’Brien
Residents of Crystal River had been complaining about a layer of gasoline covering a canal for weeks when a man captured this video of a manatee inhaling gasoline as it surfaced for air this May. Barry Bowman, a resident of Crystal River, saw two manatees surface for air in the polluted water, and captured a video as one of them took a breath. He said, “they got their breath, but they also got a face full of gasoline. It just kind of broke my heart.”
In the United States, pollution can be reported to the United States Coast Guard online at www.nrc.uscg.mil , by phone at 800-424-8802, and on the USCG app.
Learn more from our sources, https://www.chronicleonline.com/news/local/gasoline-is-leaking-into-a-crystal-river-canal-and-no/article_3872fe78-593b-11e8-acd3-77174f4db2ce.html , and https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-citrus-hernando/video-manatee-gets-nose-full-of-gasoline-fumes-in-crystal-river-canal-after-mysterious-spill