A Manatee Found Swimming on Her Side in January Went Back Into Crystal River Last Week, and It Was Not Her First Rescue

A manatee named Citron is back in Crystal River. SeaWorld Orlando released her on Thursday, August 27 at The Port Hotel and Marina, and announced it Monday, closing out a rehabilitation that started in January.

Rescuers pulled her out of Kings Bay in January after she was found swimming on her side. The diagnosis was a pneumothorax, which WFTV describes as "a condition in which air becomes trapped in the chest cavity because of damage to a lung." In manatees, WFTV reports, the condition can throw off buoyancy and stop the animal from swimming or staying submerged normally.

Citron on the sling tarp, ringed by the people gathered around her. Image: SeaWorld Orlando

The detail that makes this one different

Citron had been through this before. Laughing Place cites Elyssa Tripp, one of SeaWorld's animal care specialists, saying it was not the manatee's first rescue, and reports that the earlier rescue was in 2025 and that she was able to return to the water quickly that time.

So Citron is a repeat patient. January to late August is roughly seven months of care, against a 2025 rescue that Laughing Place says had her back in the water quickly.

Citron up close before the release. Image: SeaWorld Orlando

What the recovery actually took

She went to SeaWorld Orlando, where the park's rescue team gave her months of specialized veterinary care. When that was done, WFTV reports, wildlife officials judged her healthy enough to go back to her natural habitat. SeaWorld does that rescue, rehabilitation and release work in partnership with wildlife agencies at the state and federal level and with other groups.

SeaWorld Rescue team members with a lifting stretcher at a shallow rehabilitation pool. Image: SeaWorld Orlando

Why Crystal River

Kings Bay, where Citron was found, sits along Florida's Crystal River, in an area Laughing Place describes as known for its manatee population. Sending her back to the same system she came out of is the point of the exercise.

WFTV reports that images from the release show the rescue team getting Citron ready beside the water before she went back in.

Sources

WFTV, "Manatee named Citron returns to Crystal River after SeaWorld rehabilitation," by Brody Wooddell, August 31, 2026. Laughing Place, "SeaWorld Orlando Successfully Returns Manatee to Wild," by Tony Betti, August 31, 2026.

Image credits: release and rehabilitation photographs courtesy of SeaWorld Orlando, as published by Laughing Place.