http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091029/NEWS/91029029&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSELWayward N.J. manatee gets jet ride to Fla.
By WAYNE PARRY • Associated Press • October 29, 2009
BRIGANTINE, N.J. — A wayward manatee was loaded aboard a transport jet bound for his home state of Florida today after being rescued from chilly, murky waters near a New Jersey oil refinery.
Ilya left from Atlantic City International Airport for a Coast Guard base in Miami, with the Miami Seaquarium as the ultimate destination.
The docile sea cow was pulled from a creek at the ConocoPhillips oil refinery in Linden on Monday and had been recuperating at the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine.
"We're very relieved," said Bob Schoelkopf, co-director of the center. "We spent a lot of days worrying about him."
Federal wildlife authorities kept the rescue a secret, fearing a crush of media and well-wishers could stress the animal.
Ilya needed to be rescued because New Jersey's waters are too cold this time of year for him to survive for long. He had been migrating as far north as Massachusetts for the past decade but dithered too long in New Jersey this year.
The manatee was huddling near an outfall pipe in Morses Creek, a small tributary of the Arthur Kill, a narrow waterway that separates northern New Jersey from Staten Island, N.Y. The water temperature in the creek was 53 degrees — well below the 68 degrees manatees need to survive
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