Florida Sheriff Deputy Risks Her Own Life To Save A Manatee
Pinellas County Sheriff Deputy Jill Constant normally spends her time on the water enforcing boating laws around Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. Until, as reported by Inside The Star, “A few weeks ago when red tide levels were high, Deputy Jill Constant got a call from a woman who said there was something wrong with a manatee in the Intracoastal Waterway.”
The Tampa area was dealing with elevated ride tide levels. Red tide acts as a neurotoxin in manatees, giving them seizures that can result in drowning. When the sheriffs arrived, the manatee was trying to beach itself on the rocks so it wouldn’t drown. It refused to go underwater. That’s when Deputy Constant went into action.
“We docked the boat, I took off my equipment, and got in. We stayed in the water for two hours holding its head up until it could be rescued.” After the manatee began to regain strength, that’s when the deputy’s own safety became an issue.
“At the beginning it was too exhausted, but after a while it had recovered its strength a little and it started thrashing. I thought I was going to drown – a martyr for the cause.”
The Manatee is a mammal that needs to come to the surface to breathe.
But do NOT attempt to do what Deputy Constant did. FWC states “Manatees are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978. It is illegal to feed, harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, annoy, or molest manatees.” You can’t feed them or even offer them a freshwater hose from your dock. Anything that interferes with a manatee’s natural, wild behavior.
Pensacola Florida Sheriff Deputy Sucked Into Storm Drain And Pulled Under Highway 98
