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MOBILE, Alabama -- There was something familiar about the manatee hauled onto the back deck of a special manatee-catching boat Wednesday morning in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. It didn’t have any of the telltale propeller scars on its back often used to identify individual manatees. There were no notches or cuts in its giant paddle tail. But as soon as it was caught, the scientists were sure they’d seen the animal before. It turns out, they were right. For the second time since 2010, poor Wilson the manatee found himself snared in a giant net cast by a group of scientists...

It is good to criticize fanaticism, esp. BLIND fanaticism, but be equally weary of the fanatical Palin haters that parade around this site. Regardless of how some mask their true wishes for Palin in "constructive critic" guise, there are plenty of writers and thinkers out there who offer honest critique of Palin while having her and our country's best interests in mind and therefore want her to come out WINNING. Most of the FR trolls who post the latest Palin hit-piece of the day could care less for Palin and take joy everytime she supposedly "falls." To these types, Palin...

Gotcha! U.S. Lawmaker Caught Looking At Porn on Senate Floor [Pic in URL] 5th May 2010 Unfortunately for Florida Senator Mike Bennett, that's just not a good enough reason to be looking at pictures of topless women while on the Senate floor. Especially not while using his state-issued computer. And especially not while a colleague is arguing that the law currently being debated is 'disrespectful towards women'. Even if you do get caught in such a situation, you really shouldn't threaten the reporter who ran the story - trust us, it is just going to make matters worse. Scroll down...

The New Year's cold snap devastated the state's manatee population, with more than 100 carcasses showing up in state waters in the first three weeks of 2010... Biologists report that the big chill — which brought the coldest 12-day period South Florida has seen since at least 1940 — inflicted mortal cold stress on an unprecedented scale, killing at least 77 of the 107 dead manatees found as of Jan. 23, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The number of cold stress deaths exceeded the previous single-year record of 56, set last year. The manatees join the...

Wallace: Coulter's speech likely to be lively in Manatee By Jeremy Wallace Published: Monday, February 15, 2010 There's no telling what conservative political analyst Ann Coulter will say when she speaks at the Manatee County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner on Saturday. But there's one thing local GOP leader Kathleen King is certain she won't hear: any apologies.Coulter has made a career out of getting under the skin of her adversaries. She has accused 9/11 widows of profiting from their husbands' deaths, declared that liberals don't really love America, and has called for the United States to invade other nations...

A Florida manatee whose exciting yet perilous voyage to the frigid waters of the Northeast that amazed spectators along the Eastern Seaboard is recuperating at the Miami Seaquarium from injuries related to cold stress he suffered from his two-week stay near a Linden, N.J., oil refinery. The rescue, which took nearly eight hours and the help of 30 people, entailed using a large net and Conoco-Phillips johnboats. Rescuers failed capturing it three times, but the fourth time was the charm. Once they got the 1,100-pound, 10-foot-long manatee onto the muddy creek bank, a truck transferred Ilya to an indoor heated...

Officials haven't seen sea cow since FridayThe South Florida manatee who made news for his 1,200 mile trip from the Keys to NYC is missing in the waters off New Jersey, and officials are worried he may be in trouble. Ilya the manatee was spotted in New York harbor late last week after a month-long trip that began in Key West with stops in Maryland and Massachusetts. Ilya, who was first tagged by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 10 years ago, had found a warm place to stay near a refinery in Linden, N.J., and officials were hoping he'd...

Thanks to the Mods for having a sense of humor today.

EAST DENNIS -- A wayward manatee found its way to Sesuit Harbor this afternoon, the same location where nearly one year ago another manatee thrilled hundreds of onlookers for two weeks.

SARASOTA, FL - A Suncoast man says he has a potato that's shaped like a manatee. Sarasota resident Len Higley tells ABC 7 that he picked the tuber from a bin of loose potatoes at the Publix on Fruitville Road near Honore Avenue. He says that as he sorted through them, that his eyes went right to the potato and immediately thought it looked like one of the endangered vegetarian mammals. Higley purchased the potato a brought it home, but says he's not going to eat it. Putting it on Ebay has crossed his mind, but not sure what he's...

Along the Emerald Coast, it's fairly common to see dolphins, manta rays, sea turtles and other marine animals. But manatees cause more of a stir. That's why Niceville veterinarian Jenny Fortune and her husband were slow to identify what was swimming between them in hip-deep water near Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park recently. "I'm looking at it, going ‘Oh my God, what is it?' " Fortune said. "These things are giant. Your brain just doesn't compute." She said they first thought it might be a large manta ray. They quickly realized that the creature wasn't flat, but very, very...

NEW YORK—While sailing the ocean near Haiti, Christopher Columbus in 1493 reported seeing three mermaids from a distance. The Genoese explorer was not impressed. Up close, the sea maidens were “not as pretty as they are depicted,” he wrote in his journal, “for somehow in the face they look like men.” Many scientists now think that what Columbus probably saw was a manatee, an aquatic mammal that resembles a flippered hippo. In a new exhibition opening at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) here this weekend, viewers can digitally superimpose the picture of a mermaid atop that of a...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday it is considering reclassifying the manatee as threatened instead of endangered, a move that would indicate the animal has rebounded from the brink of extinction. The manatee would still remain protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, making it illegal to harass, poach or kill the animals. A five-year Fish and Wildlife review of manatees is set to be released later this week, agency spokesman Chuck Underwood said. He would not say whether it will recommend the changed status because it is not yet complete. "Even if we propose the reclassification, that...

CORPUS CHRISTI — Officials were trying to nurse a manatee back to health in an aquarium today, the day after using a net and crane to hoist it from warm waters near a Citgo refinery. It was the first time one of the endangered animals was rescued by wildlife officials off the Texas coast, far from the warm waters they usually frequent off Florida and Mexico. "I would say it was in probably critical condition," said Allan Strand, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in South Texas. "It was not difficult to rescue. It was hugging the...

A manatee that traveled 720 miles up the Mississippi River to Memphis in October and eluded his would-be rescuers was found dead today on the banks of a lake. Police said the manatee was discovered around 1:30 p.m. at Lake McKellar, a slackwater lake off the Mississippi River south of Memphis. The manatee was first spotted in October in the Wolf River harbor just north of the densely populated downtown area. But the animal disappeared a few days later and wasn't seen again until its body was found today. Sea World officials say they have no plans to return to...

Back in 1902, a scientist examining the smooth, grapefruit-size brain of a manatee remarked that the organ's unwrinkled surface resembled that of the brain of an idiot. Ever since then, manatees have generally been considered incapable of doing anything more complicated than chewing sea grass. But Hugh, a manatee in a tank at a Florida marine laboratory, doesn't seem like a dimwit. When a buzzer sounds, the speed bump-shaped mammal slowly flips his 1,300 pounds and aims a whiskered snout toward one of eight loudspeakers lowered into the water. Nosing the correct speaker earns him treats. Hugh is no manatee...

Excerpt - MEMPHIS, Tenn. Memphis authorities are trying to figure out how a manatee believed to be from Florida got so far up the Mississippi River. The eight- to ten-foot manatee was spotted today splashing and surfacing in a tributary of the Mississippi called Wolf River, near downtown Memphis. ~ snip ~

In the heat of summer, all sorts of tourists head north to cooler climes. This year, a manatee has joined the crowd, cruising past the nightclubs of Manhattan and continuing north.The massive animal has been spotted in the Hudson River at least three times in the last week — first off the Chelsea and Harlem sections of Manhattan, then to the north in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County."It was gigantic," said Randy Shull, who said he spotted the unusual visitor Sunday afternoon while boating at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow. "When we saw it surface, its back was just...

ST. LOUIS—Parasites from cat feces are causing deadly brain damage in California sea otters. A combination of toxic chemicals and herpes virus is killing off California sea lions. And toxic algae blooms are contributing to record manatee deaths in Florida. All of these animals live near coastlines, spending a majority of their lives in the same waters people swim and surf in. Their daily cuisines consist of the same foods we serve up in clam shacks and fine seafood restaurants. The difference between humans and these animals, says NOAA spokesperson Paul Sandifer, is that the animals deal with the ocean...