A Manatee Rescued Near Titusville Lost Her Right Flipper to a Crab Trap, and She Is Recovering at SeaWorld Orlando
A manatee pulled out of the Indian River Lagoon near Titusville has lost her right pectoral flipper, and she is recovering at SeaWorld Orlando.
She arrived at the park on August 27, SeaWorld officials told FOX 35 Orlando, which first reported the rescue and the amputation on September 8. Veterinarians judged the damage severe enough that her right pectoral flipper had to be amputated in surgery, FOX 35 reported. WFTV Channel 9, reporting on her Friday morning, said the injuries were "so severe that amputation was necessary."
She is doing better than that sentence suggests. WFTV reported she is "recovering well, eating on her own and receiving around-the-clock care from her veterinary team." A SeaWorld spokesperson had told FOX 35 much the same thing: "The good news is that she is healing well and has started eating."
Neither station reported a name for her.
A yellow buoy that would not stop moving
She was found because two people noticed something that did not look right in the water outside their own home.
Terry Morse and her husband saw the manatee from their waterfront home, after a yellow buoy caught their eye moving with her through the lagoon. The couple kept watch over her for hours, then called for help.
"It was scary because I knew she was suffering, but I didn't know how bad she was suffering," Morse told FOX 35. "We just simply wanted to get her help."
She was also worried about where the buoy sat. FOX 35 prints the next quote without a speaker tag, in a passage otherwise given to Morse: "She was very struggling. I could see that the buoy was so close to her head, the front portion of her body, and that concerned me too, because I thought it's holding her down."
That was Morse's own reading of what she was watching, not a finding from the rescue team. FOX 35 reported that the trap and the buoy together limited how much she could move and left her struggling to reach the surface to breathe.
The manatee on the deck after she was freed, shot from above, head toward the left. The yellow crab trap buoy that gave her away is sitting on the deck near the top left, and raw pink wounds are visible at the base of her far flipper and on her back. Both flippers are still attached, so this is the rescue, before the surgery. Credit: FOX 35 Orlando / WOFL.
Reached by boat and kayak
Rescuers reached her by boat and kayak, FOX 35 reported, and found her entangled in the crab trap. Once the trap was off, crews moved her to SeaWorld Orlando for care.
"We were happy about that, ecstatic about that, she was in the right hands," Morse said.
The SeaWorld spokesperson put her size in the same statement that confirmed her condition: "At more than 1,400 pounds, she will continue receiving around-the-clock care and support from our dedicated animal care and veterinary teams throughout her recovery."
The manatee in a rehabilitation pool, seen from above with her tail fluke at left and her head at right, a large discolored patch across her back. Credit: WFTV Channel 9.
Where she is now
SeaWorld Orlando's rescue operation runs backstage at the theme park. The park's own Manatee Rehabilitation Area page describes a "bustling, five acre Rescue Center used for rehabilitating wildlife that has been ill, injured or orphaned," manatees, sea turtles and birds among them, and notes that while the full guided tour has run for years, "the park has now opened up one portion of this area for complimentary viewing to all park guests."
The page does not list which animals are currently in care, so there is no way to tell from it whether this manatee is among the ones guests can see. Neither station reported where in the facility she is being held.
Morse, for her part, wanted the rescue to land as a reminder. She told FOX 35 she hopes people will watch for manatees in their own local waterways, and call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission when one of them looks hurt or in distress.
"They're God's creatures, and they're just unique and special."
Sources
- WFTV Channel 9, Florida manatee recovering after crab trap entanglement leads to flipper amputation (James Tutten, September 11, 2026)
- FOX 35 Orlando, Manatee in Indian River Lagoon rescued after being caught in crab trap (September 8, 2026)
- SeaWorld Orlando, Manatee Rehabilitation Area
Image credits: Rescue footage, FOX 35 Orlando / WOFL. Rehabilitation pool footage, WFTV Channel 9. SeaWorld Orlando has not posted a press release about this animal to its Orlando press materials page, and FOX 35 says it received a statement from SeaWorld, so both images here are frames from video the stations published.
