Pregnant manatee killed after boat collision in Matanzas Pass off Fort Myers Beach

A pregnant manatee was killed when she suffered severe internal injuries from the direct impact of a boat in Matanzas Pass on Fort Myers Beach.

The manatee, who was near term, was struck by the vessel last Friday and then transported to ZooTampa to be treated. She died two days later on Sunday, May 17.

“The female manatee was confirmed to be pregnant and close to term,” ZooTampa Director of Communications Sandra Morrison said. “She died from internal injuries caused by blunt-force trauma.”

Morrison said the manatee died from “severe watercraft injuries.” The manatee was being treated at the zoo’s David A. Straz, Jr. Manatee Critical Care Center in Tampa.

Bradley Johnson, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), said the manatee “was an adult female manatee that was 10 feet long and weighed 1,500 pounds. (She) was rescued from Matanzas Pass by FWC biologists from the marine mammal stranding team with assistance from FWC Law Enforcement, Mote Marine, and Lee County Sheriff’s Office.”

This was the fourth manatee death off Fort Myers Beach this year. Two of those deaths, in Estero Bay and San Carlos Bay, were attributed to watercraft collisions. A fourth death, in Pelican Bay, was attributed to cold stress.

Lee County leads the state in manatee deaths by far this year, with 85 deaths. Of those 85 deaths, 13 have been directly blamed on watercraft collisions. The FWC has not determined the cause of death for 54 of the fatalities. There have been 300 documented manatee deaths in Florida this year.

Matanzas Pass is in the middle of a manatee protection zone, where speeds are limited to minimum wake to no wake depending on the location.

Speeding by boats around Matanzas Pass and throughout Estero Bay has been an ongoing concern around Fort Myers Beach. The federal channel that goes between Bowditch Point Regional Park past the Matanzas Pass Bridge is a highly-active area for boats, some of which sometimes speed through the entrance into the channel from the Gulf or from other directions.

Johnson urged boaters “to go slow when on boating or on personal watercraft, and follow all manatee protection zones, while keeping an eye out for them underneath the surface.”

No information was immediately available from the FWC or Lee County Sheriff’s Office as to whether the vessel that struck the manatee was speeding or cited for any infractions.

As a comparison, Lee County’s 85 manatee deaths this year were more than double the second-placed county, Brevard County. There have been 36 manatee deaths recorded in Brevard County so far this year. Lee County was second to Brevard County in manatee deaths last year. Last year, there were 113 manatee deaths recorded in Lee County for the whole year.

The FWC asks the public to immediately report injured, distressed, orphaned, sick or dead manatees to the FWC’s 24-hour Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) so trained responders can assist.

Fort Myers Beach Observer Editor Nathan Mayberg can be reached at NMayberg@breezenewspapers.com