Floridians risked their lives to rescue manatees trapped on the bottom of a suddenly dry bed of sand that just a few moments earlier was Sarasota Bay. Hurricane Irma succeeded in sucking all of the water out of the bay, leaving a few manatees stranded.
In advance of Hurricane Irma’s approach to the Florida Gulf Coast, onshore winds pushed the water out of the bays leaving an eerie-looking expanse of puddled land where a choppy bay previously stood. The water moved out so fast that some of the bay’s manatees found themselves stranded on the land, Fox 13 reported.
Groups of residents discovered the stranded mammals and quickly walked out to them and started a rescue effort. They recruited more help and managed to pull the manatees to deeper water. The video below shows the rescue of one of the sea cows in Sarasota Bay.
Law enforcement officials joined in the rescue effort.
“With a handful of people and 2 of Manatee’s finest that were knee-deep in mud right next to us… we rolled them on the tarp and then dragged them 100 yards,” Marcelo Clavijo told the Fox 13 reporter. “[We] said ‘1-2-3’ and pulled them back to the channel. They both swam off.”
Clavijo posted additional photos of the rescue effort and said, “[I]t was a pretty cool experience, we rolled them on the tarp and then dragged them a 100 yrds it was crazy, now back to [the] reality of a hurricane coming.”
Follow complete coverage of Hurricane Irma on Breitbart News.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.