The great Manteo manatee mystery continues

MANTEO

Reports of the Manteo manatee's demise are greatly exaggerated.

Or, at the very least, premature.

In a whirlwind of unsubstantiated rumors, the big animal that everyone first thought was an alligator and was later determined to be a manatee was widely reported to have been found dead over the weekend in Alligator River.

After fielding calls Tuesday from reporters and wildlife experts, Manteo dock master Carl Jordan learned later that the sad information that supposedly originated from an unnamed angler could not be substantiated.

"Whether it was an intentional hoax, I don't know," he said Wednesday. "That whole story, I don't think there's anything to it, which is a good thing."

The talk of the town originally had been that two alligators were spending time around the Manteo waterfront. But after Jordan and others saw the slow-moving marine mammal Nov. 2, the consensus was that the alligators were probably mistaken for the manatee.

Blowing plumes of water like a mini whale and frolicking under the bridge in Dough's Creek, the manatee was documented in a YouTube video. A staff member on the Elizabeth II, the 16th-century representative sailing ship docked nearby, also shot some photographs.

Heather Bates, an aquarist with the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, was there then and said she has no doubt that it was a manatee. But the water temperature was 60 degrees that day, and manatees - which seldom come so far north in the colder months - don't do well in water below 68 degrees.

"Then we had the storm that came through, and no one has seen it since," she said. "I hope that it found its way and it is heading back to Florida."

As far as the reports of its death, Bates said, "We haven't heard anything. We haven't seen a carcass." Nor, she said, has anyone with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, to which any calls would be funneled.

Dennis Stewart, a biologist at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, said he has received no information about a dead manatee, and the Coast Guard said it has no information in its logs reporting a manatee death.

"We don't know where that report came from," said Michelle Bogardus, a bio technician at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. "As far as we know right now, we have no idea where the manatee is."

Bogardus said that it is not uncommon to see manatees in the Outer Banks sounds in the summer.

"The problem is, in November, that's not OK," she said. "Any manatee that's here is in pretty serious trouble."

Despite reports that there may have been another manatee, possibly a baby, Bogardus said that only one manatee has been seen coming up for air, which the animal must do frequently. It appeared to be about 10 feet long and was an adult.

Bogardus said a team from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Sea World in Florida was getting ready to retrieve the animal after its Manteo visit.

"If they had spotted it anytime this week, they would have been on a plane immediately," she said.

The public has been asked to notify the stranding network if the manatee is spotted.

"We're all going to hope for the best," Bogardus said. "Hopefully, this animal will turn up in some place where it's easy to get him and he's in good condition."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com