Manatee

Chessie, the wayward manatee swimming north at a record pace, has made history by becoming the first documented creature of its species to journey to New England, marine experts said yesterday.Chessie has astounded marine biologists, who for the first time have documented this endangered species moving beyond the Middle Atlantic states.The manatee, also known as a sea cow, was spotted swimming and resting on the industrial shores of New Haven, Conn., on Saturday."We have never documented a manatee sighting north of the Chesapeake Bay," said Jim Reid, a biologist with the National Biological Service.

The Orioles will play an exhibition game against State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota on April 3 at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Fla. The game follows the Orioles' last Grapefruit League game -- April 1 against the Tampa Bay Rays -- and an exhibition vs. Florida Southern on April 2, both at Ed Smith Stadium. The team is likely to travel to Norfolk, Va., to play its Triple-A affiliate, the Norfolk Tides, on April 4 before heading to Baltimore ahead of its Opening Day game against the Minnesota Twins on April 6. "The State College of Florida is extremely grateful to the Orioles for enabling us to continue our tradition of facing a major league team," State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota athletic director Matthew Ennis said in a news release.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Satellite technology monitoring "Chessie" shows that the peripatetic manatee has left Delaware Bay's north shore for the neon lights of Atlantic City.The manatee, so-named for his trek up the Chesapeake Bay last summer and fall, was shown Monday to have left quaint Victorian Cape May, N.J., and working northward in the Atlantic Ocean to Atlantic City.Juvenile male manatees are known to wander and explore, but experts say Chessie is 30 to 50 years old."He's something else," said Linda Taylor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Welcome back, old friend. In a summer of discontent across the United States from the record heat wave that's plagued much of the country to the icy deficit reduction talks in Washington, it's good to see a familiar (and might we add unflappable) figure has returned to the Land of Pleasant Living. Let us rejoice in the return of Chessie, the celebrity manatee recently sighted in Calvert County. Thanks to Morgan State University's Estuarine Research Center, the 1,200-pound marine mammal has been positively identified as none other than the one first seen in the Chesapeake Bay 17 years ago. Back in 1994, Chessie's first appearance caused such an uproar - and raised such breathless concern that he wouldn't survive as local water temperatures dropped in the fall - that he was "rescued" and air-lifted back to his native Florida on a U.S. Coast Guard C-130.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- The manatee plucked last week from the chilly Chesapeake Bay swam to freedom yesterday in the warmer, more hospitable Banana River in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near the space shuttle launch site.The manatee, dubbed "Chessie," met another at the gate to its chain-linked holding pen when it was opened about 12:15 p.m., and the two swam away together."My eyes are tearing up," said James Valade, after he helped 13 others carry the animal in a stretcher about 20 feet from a Sea World truck to the holding pen.The manatee had been "up there [in the Chesapeake Bay]

The manatee that traveled more than 500 miles from Florida to the Chesapeake Bay last fall has apparently bypassed his home away from home this year for other swimming holes along the Atlantic Coast.Chessie, the 1,500-pound, 11-foot mammal that captured hearts and headlines last summer when he meandered into Queenstown Creek, was floating off Hog Island in Virginia Monday night."We're just waiting to see" his next move, said Linda Taylor, a spokeswoman with the Chesapeake Bay Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The elusive manatee lived to swim another day in the nTC Chesapeake Bay yesterday, as choppy and muddy waters marred visibility and thwarted searchers using recorded manatee sounds as a lure.Wildlife experts thought the recorded sounds might attract the mammal. But the manatee didn't bite and the search was called off about 4:30 p.m.The attempt to attract the animal with manatee sounds was a long shot, said James A. Valade, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and had not been tried before.

A team of wildlife specialists set out yesterday to track down a misguided manatee, perhaps the first spotted north of the Potomac River, that has been swimming around the upper Chesapeake Bay for at least seven weeks.An effort to capture and return the docile animal to its warm Florida home could come as early as today, a federal official said.Wildlife specialists are concerned that recent heavy rains may have lowered the Chesapeake's water temperature to the point where it threatens the manatee's health.

The elusive manatee lived to swim another day in the Chesapeake Bay yesterday, as choppy and muddy waters marred visibility and thwarted searchers using recorded manatee sounds as a lure.Wildlife experts thought the recorded sounds -- a series of dolphin-like squeaks -- might attract the mammal. But the manatee didn't bite and the search was called off about 4:30 p.m."Today's just not a good day at all," said James A. Valade, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who rode in a helicopter yesterday, scanning the shoreline near Queenstown.

MIAMI -- The homely manatee may be among the best-loved animals in Florida -- its picture is on a fund-raising license plate -- but it is a creature shadowed by extinction.So far this year, 47 manatees have been found dead in Florida -- double the rate at this time last year, when a total of 192 perished. An aerial survey last month spotted 1,443 of the animals -- down from a high of 1,856 three years ago.Scientists are alarmed."Unlike the extreme cold temperatures in 1990 -- the highest single year for manatee mortality, with 206 deaths -- no single large natural event occurred in 1994 to which we can attribute the high mortality," said Pat Rose of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Chessie, the wandering Florida manatee that has visited the Chesapeake Bay at least twice over the past 17 years, is back. The well-traveled mammal has not been seen since 2001, and his resurfacing is making waves among marine scientists and bay folk alike. "I wanted to let you know that the [U.S. Geological Survey] identified the manatee from Wednesday, and it's a familiar face to us … it's Chessie!," said Jennifer Dittmar, stranding coordinator for the National Aquarium, in an email to a Calvert Marine Museum staffer, confirming the animal's return.

The badly decayed body of a manatee was found washed up by the shore of the Patuxent River last week, apparently the first such discovery in Maryland, officials at the Calvert Marine Museum said. According to officials, the dead aquatic animal was found Monday evening by exhibits technician Skip Edwards a few miles north of the museum in Solomons at the southern tip of Calvert County. The discovery was confirmed by Spephen Godfrey, the museum's curator of paleontology. The large, sea grass-eating mammals are normally found off Florida and other in other warm waters but have been known to occasionally travel northward along the Intercoastal Waterway in summer.

Man dies in Laurel crash; passenger critically injured A 20-year-old man died Wednesday after his car veered off a road and hit a utility pole in Laurel, Anne Arundel County police said. Oscar Ivan Patrinos Lara was driving his 1997 Volkswagen Golf with one passenger, Angelica Guillen Tovilla, 18, police said. Lara and Tovilla shared an address on Shiloh Court in Laurel, according to police. Lara was driving north in the 8300 block of Brock Bridge Road about 1:15 p.m. when the car crossed into the oncoming lane, nearly hitting other cars, police said.

One of Florida's endangered manatees paid a social call on Havre de Grace over the weekend, swimming close enough to the dock to be filmed and even touched, officials at the National Aquarium said yesterday. Video shot by a town police officer of the visitor was clear enough to allow federal biologists in Florida to identify the manatee as a teenager named Ilya, last sighted near Miami three years ago, said Jennifer Dittmar, coordinator of the Baltimore aquarium's marine animal rescue program.

We're asking readers to show us a souvenir from their recent summer travels. Some of the best vacation souvenirs are the least tangible, such as the smell of the sea or the color of a sunrise. But we're not talking about those. We're talking about that manatee snow globe you brought home after a weekend in Key West. Or the sequined sombrero from a cruise to Mexico. The real mementos of a perfect (or not-so-perfect) summer trip. Send us a photo of the souvenir along with a few words about why it's a favorite by Friday.

On February 8, 2006, EARL E. CLARK, JR., age 70, of Parrish, FL, formerly a resident of Bel Air, MD. Earl retired from the Baltimore City Public School System in 1993 after serving 30 years as a vocational teacher and administrator. Earl was an alumni of the University of Maryland and Florida State University. He was a member of Phi Delta Kappa Educational Society, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Florida State University Manatee Seminole Club. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, the former Carolyn Brookhart; his son, Scott, of Tampa, FL and two daughters, Sheryl Metzbower, of Hunt Valley, Cathi Kreis, of Gainsville, VA and four grandchildren.

One of Florida's endangered manatees paid a social call on Havre de Grace over the weekend, swimming close enough to the dock to be filmed and even touched, officials at the National Aquarium said yesterday. Video shot by a town police officer of the visitor was clear enough to allow federal biologists in Florida to identify the manatee as a teenager named Ilya, last sighted near Miami three years ago, said Jennifer Dittmar, coordinator of the Baltimore aquarium's marine animal rescue program.

It's a boy, rescuers of Maryland's meandering manatee announced yesterday after, at last, capturing the animal near the mouth of Queenstown Creek on the Eastern Shore.Wildlife specialists caught the gentle, wily giant after 6 1/2 hours of diligent work in the water that began about 8:30 a.m. and ended with the mature male manatee being trucked to the National Aquarium in Baltimore -- and ultimately, they hope, back to Florida.The drive to Baltimore was done with the manatee swaddled in foam rubber in a Marine Animal Rescue Program truck, with an escort of state Natural Resources Police.