When two manatees found themselves stranded on the shore at Smyrna Dunes Park late on a Monday night, the New Smyrna Beach Fire Department answered the call — and the effort to get them back into the water was no small feat. Adult manatees can weigh anywhere from 1,000 to 3,500 pounds and stretch up to 13 feet long, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Firefighters worked together using a harness to lift and maneuver the animals toward the surf. Video of the rescue shows the crew pulling, pushing, and finally giving each manatee one last collective shove into deeper water — a moment made all the more satisfying as the animals began wiggling and moving faster the closer they got to the sea.
The effort paid off for both animals. "Both manatees were successfully returned to the water and both swam away," the fire department confirmed to Storyful News.
Manatees, sometimes called sea cows, are gentle herbivores that graze on seagrass and other aquatic plants in Florida's coastal waters, rivers, and marshes. Strandings can happen for a variety of reasons and often require human intervention to give the animals a safe return to deeper water.
This story was originally reported by Fox Weather.
