NOTES FROM THE
FIELD – WEEK 1:
19-April-2012
At 10:30 am, Rita and Georgie arrived at the Great Harbour
Cay Marina in Bullock’s Harbour on the Atlantis vessel Sea Keeper.
High school students and interested locals had gathered at the marina for this
exciting event. At 11:00 am, Dolphin Cay-Atlantis Animal Rescue Team carefully
lowered Georgie into the water, and then Rita followed as quickly as possible.
Both animals immediately paired up underwater and surfaced swimming towards the
mangroves at the east end of the marina.
During the time of the release, two
male manatees were observed in the marina and later paired up with the tagged
animals. All four manatees were observed socialising as they slowly travelled
out of the marina. Jim Reid (USGS) set up the VHF tracking gear and the
tracking team started to track Rita and Georgie from land.
After a few detours through the
bush, we found all four animals at the northern end of the T-canal; which is a
‘T’ shape cut in the harbour. We observed both males interacting with Rita
while Georgie milled nearby. All four were seen feeding on algae on the canal
wall. We left them at 4:30 PM.
20-April-2012
In the early morning, the juvenile
male was seen in the marina and came very close to one of our vessels. The
single animal remained in the harbor for more than 3 hours. This was a great
opportunity for Matt McCoy (Loggerhead Productions) to get underwater footage
of the juvenile male, which will be used in an educational film about ‘Manatees
in The Bahamas.’
Rita and Georgie were later found in
the marina but Rita’s tag was missing! Jim successfully placed a temporary tag
on Rita and the original tag was found and later reattached. Kendria Ferguson
(BMMRO) made acoustic recordings of both animals, which will be used to
identify individuals from their vocalisations.
Later Jim collected genetic samples
from both the adult and juvenile males. These samples will be used to determine
if these individuals are both offspring of Gina and help to develop a family
tree of Great Harbour Cay manatees.
21-April-2012
At 8:30 am GPS locations from the
tags showed that Rita and Georgie were in Shark Creek along the west side of
Great Harbour Cay, about 2 miles south of the harbour. When the tracking team
arrived they found mother and calf both in good health and feeding on seagrass
beds in the creek system.
22-April-2012
With winds up to 20 knots the
weather was not favorable for the tracking team to hit the open waters in
search of Rita and Georgie so we decided to put up manatee warning signs. These
signs were provided by Florida’s Save the Manatee Club, along with other
educational material that will distribute throughout the island to raise
awareness of the local population of manatees.
The tracking team was able to track
them by land and both animals were found on the east side of the island
swimming along the beach. The tracking team stayed with them for over 3 hours
and monitored their breathing and movement patterns. We also got some
underwater photos!!
23-April-2012
At 10:40 am local residents of
Great Harbour Cay notified the “manatee lady” (Kendria) that four manatees were
in front of the marina office. Gina and her
calf JJ were both observed feeding on algae on the pilings and JJ was seen
nursing occasionally. Both the adult male and juvenile male were there and
remained close to Gina and JJ during their stay in the marina.
Jim was able to collect a genetic
sample from JJ and also confirm that she is in fact a female calf. Both males
continued to remain close and watched Jim constantly!
GPS locations from Rita and Georgie
tags showed that they traveled as far south as Ambergris Cays. During the
night, the tracking team closely monitored their movements as they were
received via satellite. They entered Shark Creek shortly after 6pm from the
west side of the island and remained there for approximately 5 hours. During
this time, scientists believe that they were feeding and resting, as this area
has extensive seagrass bed coverage. The tracking team continued to monitor
their movements throughout the night and hoped that they turned to head back
north very soon!
24-April-2012
At 4:30am, GPS locations showed that
Rita and Georgie took ‘the channel’ cut and headed back north into the harbour
of Great Harbour Cay.
At 8am we located both mother and
calf under Al’s dock (our local fish provider). Both animals were resting and
Georgie was observed nursing. The tracking team obtained photos, videos and
acoustic recordings of both animals during this 3.5 hour encounter.
From their departure from the
harbour early Sunday morning to their return Monday morning, they managed to
complete a 50 mile trip around Great Harbour. A very happy ending to a very
long journey!
25-April-2012
Rita and Georgie remained in the
marina overnight and at 7:15am were found just a few houses down from the tag
team’s home. Both animals swam towards our tracking vessel, “Feresa” and
remained in the area for 15 minutes. Georgie has quite the personality! She
began sucking on Feresa’s inflatable tubes and eating the algae off another
inflatable boat a few feet away.
Both animals remained very close and
traveled under the docks towards the end of the marina towards the mangroves.
The local residents occasionally report seeing Gina and the other manatees at
these mangroves and believe there is a fresh water discharge. This is also very
close to the area of Rita and Georgie’s initial release back into the wild.
| A plot of the locations of Rita and Georgie via Argos satellite show their first weeks' movement around Great Harbour Cay; arrows indicate direction of travel from and returning to Great Harbour Cay harbour. 55168 is Rita's satellite transmitter Identification number. |
