kindness
Her calf stayed close while rescuers cut the manatee free
A guide could have kept fishing. He made the call instead.
A female manatee is swimming free off St. Simons Island, Georgia, after a fishing guide spotted her tangled in a commercial crab pot line and called it in. Capt. Davis Galland reported the July 29 entanglement, which wildlife officials say was the first ever recorded in the state. The adult was wrapped tightly in the line and buoy, with a dependent calf staying close. A three-boat team from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission raced to the Mackay River before a storm chased them off the water. Over two days, they cut away the anchoring trap and manually removed the buoy and line, which had begun cutting into her skin. Rescuers drew on techniques learned freeing dolphins and North Atlantic right whales. They also fitted her with a satellite tag. The two smaller manatees nearby made the standard net approach impossible, so the team worked by hand instead.