Chessie the Manatee Returns To Chesapeake

Chessie the wandering Florida manatee is back in the Chesapeake.

The National Aquarium says the manatee rescued from the bay in the mid-1990s as cold weather approached was sighted Tuesday in Calvert County marina harbor. Jennifer Dittmar, the Baltimore
aquarium's stranding coordinator, says photos were sent to biologists at the U.S. Geological Survey, who used markings on the manatee's body to confirm it was the same manatee.

After being rescued in 1994, Chessie swam farther north the next year, making his way to New England. He was fitted with a radio transmitter, but biologists lost track of him in the summer of 1996
when a storm hit while he was in North Carolina.

Chessie's last confirmed Chesapeake sighting was in Virginia's portion of the bay in 2001.
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us