Featured Image Credit: Youtube Screenshot
By: Laura O’Brien
A large group of beachgoers had the opportunity to save two lives last Thursday.
The strangers sprung into action as a team when a pair of manatees became stranded on a beach in Naples, Florida. The good samaritans called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission but decided to take matters into their own hands because FFWC was unable to make it to the beach in a timely manner.
The adults began to roll the manatees back into deeper waters, and while Amanda Luebke’s children helped their mother and the other adults by digging a trench toward the water. Luebke’s family believed that the manatees must have weighed 400 to 500 pounds. Adult Florida manatees live for 50 to 60 years and weigh a whopping 1,500 to 1,800 pounds. The group worked for hours to save the two manatees, and after quite a bit of effort, the manatees were safely back in deeper waters!
Learn more from our sources, https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/national/strangers-work-together-to-save-two-suffocating-manatees-on-florida-beach , and https://defenders.org/florida-manatee/basic-facts