Manatee Couple Romeo And Juliet Are Tampa's Newest Senior Residents

TAMPA, FL —A pair of hefty, geriatric lovers named Romeo and Juliet are getting the VIP treatment following their 280-mile journey from the Miami Seaquarium to ZooTampa at Lowry Park.

It's the first time the two West Indian manatees, both 65 years old and weighing in at 3,000 pounds each, have left their Miami home since the late 1950s.

Fortunately, the aging sea cows didn't have to make the trek by water, which would have entailed swimming from Miami, around the Florida peninsula and up the west coast to Tampa in Central Florida, a distance of about 426 miles.

Instead, the manatee pair arrived in Tampa Tuesday as befitting their senior status — in comfort and style.

Under the watchful eye of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, members of the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership assisted the Seaquarium in hoisting the 1 1/2-ton manatees into specialized transport vehicles provided by ZooTampa, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Romeo and Juliet were accompanied on the 4 1/2-hour journey to Tampa by a team of veterinarians and animal care team members who specialize in caring for these gentle, slow-moving, plant-eating marine mammals.

Romeo and Juliet arrived no worse for wear at ZooTampa, which boasts one of only three critical care centers for manatees in the country.

A third manatee, Clarity, an adult female manatee who lived at the Miami Seaquarium since 2009 after she was rescued suffering injuries from a boat's propeller, was taken to another of the nation's three manatee critical care centers, SeaWorld in Orlando.

Under federal regulations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has jurisdiction over injured manatees like Clarity who couldn't survive in the wild due to her disabilities.

So the wildlife service approached SeaWorld to see if the theme park would be willing to house and care for Clarity. SeaWorld promptly agreed, although SeaWorld representative Jeanette Conrado said the MRP has yet to decide if SeaWorld will become her permanent home.

MRP experts will review her case once she's settled at SeaWorld and determine if it's the best place for her to live out her life.

Romeo and Juliet, on the other hand, are a unique case.

They came to live at the Seaquarium long before the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed on Oct. 21, 1972, and the federal Endangered Species Act was enacted in 1973, according to Carli Segelson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

After much soul-searching in which the Seaquarium debated whether the aquarium's lone manatees would be better off left in the only place that's been their home or if they'd be happier in a social group with other manatees, the Seaquarium discussed the dilemma with ZooTampa.

The Seaquarium concluded that ZooTampa's David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Critical Care Center and team of manatee experts was better equipped to care for a pair of aging manatees.

The zoo's critical care center has three 16,500-gallon medical care pools with controlled floors and two manatee recovery habitats containing 200,000 gallons of water combined.

While West Indian manatees can be found in rivers, canals, bays and estuaries throughout Florida, they generally live to be 50 to 60 years old in the wild. However, as Romeo and Juliet have proven, in captivity they can live more than 65 years.

ZooTampa agreed that Romeo and Juliet could use a change of scenery after more than 60 years and asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for permission to move the manatees to Tampa, at least temporarily.

Dr. Cynthia Stringfield, ZooTampa's senior vice president of animal health, education and conservation, said Romeo and Juliet bear little resemblance to their namesakes in the William Shakespeare story of doomed young lovers. The manatee couple have lived long, healthy lives.

The Fish and Wildlife Service gave the move a thumbs up.

“We are grateful to all organizations involved in this intricate operation including law enforcement partners for successfully transporting Romeo and Juliet to ZooTampa,” said Stringfield.

On Wednesday, the zoo began a battery of tests and wellness checkups on Romeo and Juliet.

“Our team of experts, alongside specialists from numerous organizations including USFWS, FWC and the MRP, will review the health assessment to determine the next steps and long-term plans for both animals," said Stringfield. "Meanwhile, Romeo and Juliet will receive around-the-clock highest-quality care from a dedicated team of professionals.”

For nearly three decades, ZooTampa has been one of Florida's go-to agencies to intervene, triage and save critically injured, sick and orphaned manatees with the goal of returning each to its native waters, Stringfield said.

Additionally, the zoo invests nearly $1 million each year to just its manatee residents. Stringfield said, on average, it costs about $300 a day to treat a manatee patient and approximately $3,000 a month to feed each adult manatee.

To date, ZooTampa has cared for more than 500 manatees and currently is home to 18 manatees.

The Tampa zoo is also a member of the Manatee Rehabilitation Partnership, created in 2001, marking the beginning of a new era of cooperation in efforts to protect manatees.

The MRP is made up of federal, state, nonprofit and for-profit companies like SeaWorld — all with the shared goal of protecting manatees and overseeing their safe release back into the wild following rehabilitation.

Before the umbrella organization was founded in 2002, state and federal agencies monitored injured or sick manatees on their own and then tracked the marine mammals once they were released at permitted rehabilitation facilities in Florida, Segelson said.

The problem with this system was inconsistency in tracking the manatees, and, frankly, it was pricey for individual state and federal agencies to maintain the funding levels necessary to meet all of the escalating conservation needs of the species.

Despite the cost, Segelson said it's critical to track and monitor the health and well-being of rehabilitated manatees once they're released back into the wild to ensure the survival of the species. Forming the umbrella Manatee Rehabilitation Partnership was the ideal solution.

Stringfield said the process to move Romeo and Juliet to Tampa was no easy feat. But the two manatees seem content to explore their new habitat.