Florida Crews Race to Rescue 7-Foot Manatee Trapped Inside Storm Drain in Melbourne Beach
City surveyors in Melbourne Beach were conducting routine work on Feb. 9 when they heard an unusual chirping coming from a storm drain under the road.
Their first guess was rats.
What they found instead was a 7-foot, 410-pound manatee wedged inside a baffle box — a concrete structure built into stormwater infrastructure to filter pollutants before water enters local waterways.
The discovery launched an hours-long, multi-agency rescue operation involving the Brevard County Fire Department, Brevard County Public Works, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), a University of Florida specialty team, a private towing company and SeaWorld staff.
How Did a Manatee End Up Under a Road?
The manatee likely entered the drain pipe during a cold snap.
Manatees seek warm water during cold weather and often find refuge in natural springs, such as Three Sisters Springs and Blue Spring State Park. Many of those springs have either stopped flowing, been cut off by development or been polluted.
The drain pipe likely appeared to provide warmer water, but it contained very little water. The animal could not turn around inside it.
Brandi Phillips, branch director for the University of Florida Animal Technical Rescue team, was on site. She said the manatee likely “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.
Without those surveyors happening to be in the right place at the right time on a quiet Melbourne Beach residential street, the manatee’s fate could have been very different.
Firefighters Descended Into the Drain
The FWC normally handles rescue missions for distressed manatees, but the agency wasn’t equipped for this particular situation. It required specialized equipment, careful coordination and constant monitoring.
The Brevard County Fire Department received the request from FWC at 2:30 p.m. The rescue team arrived about 30 minutes later.
Ventilation fans were installed to pump fresh air into the drain.
A firefighter then descended into the confined space using respiratory protection and air quality monitoring equipment — a scenario more commonly associated with hazardous materials calls or structural collapses.
The firefighter placed a large plastic sheet over the manatee to protect it from falling debris during what came next.
Public Works Crews Removed Five Tons of Concrete
Brevard County Public Works, after receiving permission from the government, moved in and removed 10,000 pounds of concrete to free the trapped animal. That infrastructure had to be carefully cut and hauled away while a living manatee sat directly below.
Blake Faucett, marine mammal biologist with FWC and the onsite lead for the manatee rescue, described the animal’s condition.
“The manatee was alert and moving at the time of rescue, which was encouraging,” says Faucett. “However, he was underweight and had visible wounds. Responders worked carefully to minimize stress and handle him as gently and efficiently as possible.”
With the concrete cleared and the manatee accessible, there was still the matter of hoisting a 410-pound marine mammal out of a drain. A private towing company helped hoist the manatee out free of charge.
Video footage from Fox 35 Orlando shows the moment the manatee was lifted from the drain — a moment that capped hours of coordinated effort from across the community.
The manatee was then loaded onto a truck and transported to SeaWorld for care.
‘It Did Take a Village to Save This Manatee’
Faucett reflected on the moment the rescue was complete.
“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,” she said.
Phillips put it more simply: “It did take a village to save this manatee.”
That village stretched from city surveyors who trusted their ears, to firefighters who descended into a storm drain, to public works crews who moved five tons of concrete, to a towing company that donated its services, to wildlife biologists who kept the animal’s welfare front and center.
The Manatee Now Has a Name — and a Recovery Plan
At SeaWorld, staff focused on hydrating and warming the manatee while treating cuts and scrapes on the belly and underside, and treating an infection. They estimate the manatee to be two years old.
They named him Melby, a nod to Melbourne Beach, the community where he was found.
As of 2025, SeaWorld has rescued over 1,000 manatees since the inception of the program in the 1970s, per National Geographic. SeaWorld and FWC will coordinate Melby’s release back into the wild once his health improves.
The rescue offered a concrete look at how local infrastructure interacts with the natural environment in ways that aren’t always visible. The same baffle box designed to protect waterways from pollutants became a trap for an animal those waterways support.
And freeing Melby required an unplanned partnership between the Brevard County Fire Department, Public Works, FWC, the University of Florida, a private towing company and SeaWorld — agencies and organizations that had to coordinate on the fly for a scenario none of them had likely rehearsed.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
