ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS
SOURCE: Newport News Daily Press
Chessie, the manatee with a mission, is headed our way again. Chessie is moving up the East Coast, according to satellite readings from his radio transmitter. He crossed the Florida-Georgia border on June 12 and was somewhere north of Brunswick, Ga., on Monday, said Bob Bonde, a manatee biologist with the federal government's National Biological Service in Gainesville, Fla.
At his current pace - as many as 25 miles a day - Chessie could reach the mouth of Chesapeake Bay in two to three weeks, Bonde said.
It would be Chessie's third area visit in as many years. He first gained distinction among manatees in 1994, when he was captured in the Maryland portion of the bay and airlifted back to Florida to save him from fall weather. Manatees cannot survive in waters colder than 65 degrees.
Chessie broadened his fame last year, when he became the first known Florida manatee to swim to New England and back. He got as far as Point Judith, R.I., on Aug. 16 before turning around.Manatee sightings were once very rare in the Chesapeake area but are becoming more commonplace, said Susan Barco of the marine mammal stranding program of the Virginia Marine Science Museum. Whether there are indeed more manatees in the bay or people are simply more likely to report them is not clear, Barco said.
The first area manatee sighting of this season occurred Friday, when a couple of Coast Guard employees saw one at the Portsmouth Coast Guard station near Craney Island. The museum's stranding team was not able to confirm the sighting but consider it reliable.
``I certainly trust most of the Coast Guard folks to know what they're talking about,'' Barco said. ``There aren't many things this time of year that you can mistake a manatee for.''
Scientists believe the Florida manatee population has grown during the past 10 to 20 years, but they remain an endangered species. An aerial survey found 2,639 of them in their Florida habitat this winter, though the overall population may be a little larger, Bonde said. At least 155 manatees were killed this winter by an outbreak of algae known as red tide near Fort Meyers, Fla., Bonde said.Scientists believe Chessie weighs about 1,200 pounds - about normal for an adult manatee - and is about 11 feet long. Manatees eat marine plants, have no natural predators and can expect to live 50 to 60 years.
Chessie is one of about 18 Florida manatees whose whereabouts are tracked by radio transmitters. The transmitters contain a sensor that bobs up and down in the water as the manatee moves. More bobs means the manatee is active; fewer means it's probably feeding or resting. Satellite data indicates that Chessie is at ``maximum tip,'' meaning his sensor is bobbing up and down at top speed and that he's probably on the move, Bonde said.``When he pulls it underwater, we lose the signal,'' he said. ``We don't get as many signals when he's traveling north.''Chessie lost his radio transmitter last August in New Haven, Conn., and didn't get a new one until February, when he had returned to the Fort Lauderdale area. As spring arrived, he moved north along the Florida coast, stopping to feed and play with other manatees, and had reached Jacksonville by mid-May.
Chessie was not alone in Georgia. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the National Biological Survey are tracking three others, including one seen with Chessie last week. Georgia waters are considered part of the manatee's normal summer range.
Scientists are not sure what causes manatee wanderlust. The winter movement of manatees up and down the coast of Florida in winter is tied to feeding and mating, but Chessie's 2,000-mile jaunt from Fort Lauderdale to Port Judith last summer is hard to explain.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB