Hurricane Helene leaves manatees stranded in Florida

Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said its teams are responding to reports of stranded manatees after Hurricane Helene ripped through the state last week.

Helene made landfall in Florida’s panhandle as a Category 4 storm last Tuesday night, bringing with it heavy rainfall, high winds and flooding that also struck other Southeastern states. As of Tuesday, the death toll from Helene had reached 159, the Associated Press reported, as search and rescue operations continue throughout hard-hit states.

The storm has also wreaked havoc on the wildlife caught in its path. The FWC said in a post to its social media accounts on Monday that its biologists were working to rescue manatees—a protected animal under Florida state law—that were beached.

“Manatees can become stranded during rough weather conditions, such as a hurricane or tropical storm,” the FWC said Monday in a post on its Facebook page.

It added in its post, “While our top priority has been to help residents and visitors of Florida recover from the impacts of Helene, we are also working swiftly to rehabilitate and conserve these gentle giants.”

Images of rescued manatees were shared by the FWC on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday afternoon.

Manatees are native to Florida and inhabit rivers, springs and coastal areas throughout the state. The nonprofit Save the Manatee Club, based in Florida, said in a release to its website last week that it was working with its partners, including the FWC, to “actively” monitor the aftermath of Helene and its impact on the manatee population.

“As Florida natives, manatees are well-adapted to the extreme weather events in our state,” the release read in part. “However, they do face significant risk during powerful storms. Storm surges can cause manatees to go far inland to areas they would not normally inhabit, where they can become trapped when the water recedes.”

The FWC urged the public to not attempt to handle any stranded manatees and instead call the state’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-392 to alert officials of the animals’ location.

It added that “manatees stranded by storms may need immediate medical attention from wildlife experts.” Residents can report incidents of other injured wildlife to the Wildlife Alert Hotline or submit a report online through this link.

Newsweek reached out to the FWC for additional information via email on Tuesday.

The FWC was deployed over the weekend as part of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Operation Blue Ridge, a multistate agency effort to assist recovery efforts in North Carolina and Tennessee, according to a release from the governor’s office Sunday.

The FWC wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday that Operation Blue Ridge “also aims to help Floridians needing rescue in Western North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Tennessee Valley.”

“FWC stands ready to continue assisting our neighbors as they recover from Hurricane Helene’s effects,” the post added.