Top Secret Mission Rescues Stranded Keys Manatee

Sea cow Ilya rescued in northern waters

By BRIAN HAMACHER

Updated 3:57 PM EDT, Thu, Oct 29, 2009

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Ilya the manatee is one tough sea cow.

After spending weeks as a manatee about town in the waters near New York City, officials began to fear the worst when they couldn't locate him last week.

Ilya, who months ago wandered over 1,200 miles north from his home in the Keys, was in danger of dying from hypothermia. After stops in Maryland and Massachusetts, Ilya had seemed to have taken to the waters of New York harbor, settling in a spot near a oil refinery in Linden, New Jersey.

Manatees generally need water temperatures to stay at or above 68 degrees, but the New York waters were dipping into the lower 60s and 50s last week.

Ilya the manatee on her way home.

Officials were tracking the manatee until they could get in place to rescue him from the waters, but things took a turn for the worse when Ilya went missing.

But now comes word that the plucky manatee was rescued Monday, and has been recuperating at a Marine Mammal Stranding Center in nearby Brigantine, N.J. It turns out wildlife officials wanted to keep his rescue top secret so that he wouldn't be stressed out by the media or any well-wishers.

Just this morning, he boarded a U.S. Coast Guard plane in Atlantic City bound for the Miami Seaquarium. He'll be released back to the warm waters of his home in South Florida after he recuperates a bit more.