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No doubt this poor animal followed Nidia Lopez up here...

Fearing chilly end for manatee seen in Kill Van Kull

Wednesday, October 21, 2009
By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Animal rescuers fear for the welfare of a sea cow that was last reported in the Kill Van Kull near the Atlas Yacht Club in Bayonne on Monday, several hundred miles north of its native Florida waters, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.

A caller reported seeing a manatee - also known as a sea cow - at about 8:30 p.m. Monday night to U.S. Coast Guard, officials said. Coast Guard, New Jersey State Police and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center were unable to find the manatee and confirm if it was Ilya, a manatee that wandered north from Florida, where it has been living for at least a decade.

It was spotted near Massachusetts and Connecticut in August and most recently in the Arthur Kill near Linden on Friday.

"We don't know with certainty it was Ilya," said Chuck Underwood, a public information officer from the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, based in Jacksonville Fla. "The sighting was only for two to three minutes so although it seems likely we can't confirm it."

Ilya, a 6-to 8-foot-long male manatee with a thick fan-shaped tail with propeller scars on its back, was previously seen Friday afternoon in the Arthur Kill between Staten Island and the ConocoPhillips refinery in Linden, after first being spotted in the area the day before.

Director Robert Schoelkopf said the mammal appeared healthy at the time, but officials are now concerned it could die in the chilly New Jersey waters.