City Surveyors Heard Strange Sounds Under a Road — It Turned Out to Be a Stuck Manatee
When city surveyors in Melbourne Beach, Florida heard chirping beneath a road on Feb. 9, they assumed rats had gotten into a storm drain.
What they found instead was a 7-foot, 410-pound manatee, alone, underweight and wounded, trapped inside a concrete baffle box underground.
The animal had crawled into a drain pipe during a cold snap and could not turn around to escape.
His presence in a man-made stormwater structure — designed to filter pollutants, not shelter marine mammals — reflects a growing problem: Florida’s manatees are running out of safe, natural places to go when temperatures drop.
A Drain Pipe Mistaken for Refuge
Manatees seek warm water during cold weather. Historically, they have found it in natural springs like Three Sisters Springs and Blue Spring State Park, ecosystems that once reliably provided thermal shelter during winter cold snaps.
But many of those natural springs have either stopped flowing, been cut off by development or been polluted. That loss is reshaping manatee behavior in dangerous ways, pushing the animals toward industrial and urban infrastructure.
The drain pipe likely appeared to provide warmer water. It contained very little. The animal could not turn around inside the pipe.
Brandi Phillips, branch director for the University of Florida Animal Technical Rescue team, who was on site, described what likely happened. She theorized that the manatee “panicked and kept crawling forward until he hit a dead end,” per National Geographic.
“We’re so lucky that the surveyors were able to locate him, because I don’t think anybody would have ever noticed that he had been down there,” she added.
The manatee was later estimated to be just two years old. If not for that routine survey, he would have likely died unseen in a concrete box beneath a road.
Hours of Coordination to Free One Manatee
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) normally handles rescue missions for distressed manatees, but this situation required specialized equipment and constant monitoring to keep both responders and the manatee safe.
The Brevard County Fire Department received a call from the FWC at 2:30 p.m. The rescue team arrived about 30 minutes later. What followed stretched on for hours and involved multiple agencies and private partners.
Rescue teams first installed ventilation fans to pump fresh air into the drain.
A firefighter descended using respiratory protection and air quality monitoring equipment, then placed a large plastic sheet over the manatee to protect the animal from falling debris during concrete removal.
After receiving permission from the government, Brevard County Public Works removed 10,000 pounds of concrete — a volume that illustrates how deeply trapped the manatee was within the infrastructure.
A private towing company then helped hoist the animal out of the drain free of charge. Video footage from Fox 35 Orlando shows the moment the manatee was lifted free.
“It did take a village to save this manatee,” says Phillips.
An Animal Already in Trouble
The manatee’s condition upon extraction painted a sobering picture.
“The manatee was alert and moving at the time of rescue, which was encouraging,” says Blake Faucett, marine mammal biologist with FWC and the onsite lead for the manatee rescue.
“However, he was underweight and had visible wounds. Responders worked carefully to minimize stress and handle him as gently and efficiently as possible,” Faucett added.
The manatee was loaded onto a truck and transported to SeaWorld for care. There, the team focused on hydrating and warming him while treating cuts and scrapes on his belly and underside, along with an infection.
SeaWorld’s involvement is part of a long-running commitment to manatee rehabilitation. As of 2025, SeaWorld has rescued over 1,000 manatees since the inception of the program in the 1970s, per National Geographic.
The rescued manatee was named Melby by SeaWorld staff. SeaWorld and FWC will coordinate his release back into the wild once his health improves — a rehabilitation-to-release pipeline that sustains wild population numbers.
The Real Question Melby’s Ordeal Raises
Faucett reflected on the moment Melby was freed.
“The moment the manatee was successfully removed from the culvert was significant. After hours of coordination and effort, seeing him safely secured and transported for care was both a relief and a powerful reminder of what partnership and preparation can accomplish,” says Faucett.
Melby’s rescue succeeded because of rapid collaboration between the FWC, Brevard County Fire Department, Brevard County Public Works, the University of Florida Animal Technical Rescue team, a private towing company and SeaWorld.
But the circumstances that put a two-year-old manatee underground in a baffle box demand attention beyond the rescue itself.
When natural springs stop flowing, are cut off by development or are polluted, manatees do not wait for conditions to improve. They adapt, seeking warmth wherever they can find it — even in storm drains that offer no food, little water and no way out.
Protecting manatees requires more than rescuing them from man-made traps. It requires preserving and restoring the natural warm-water refuges they depend on for survival.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
