Trapped manatees rescued in Florida

This video from the USA says about itself:

Crews save 19 manatees trapped in Florida storm drain

24 February 2015

Thanks to a rescue operation that stretched late into the night, the large marine mammals were set free. Erica Rakow of CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG reports from Satellite Beach, Florida.

By Barbara Liston:

Trapped manatees rescued from storm drain

February 25 2015

About 20 Florida manatees have been freed from a storm drain near Cape Canaveral, where they were apparently trying to warm themselves, officials and local media said.

Video footage showed a rescuer comforting one manatee floating at the opening of the pipe, which was cut open during the hours-long rescue.

The footage, posted online by Central Florida News 13 and Florida Today newspaper, also showed a manatee being carried in a sling to a nearby canal, where it was released to cheers from onlookers, and two other manatees being petted after being hoisted out of the water by heavy machinery.

The rescue in Satellite Beach, a town on the Atlantic coast 24 kilometres south of Cape Canaveral, started mid-afternoon on Monday when Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist, Ann Spellman, sounded the alarm, according to Florida Today.

She told the paper that her hunch led city workers to check the 30 to 45 metre-long drain pipe.

Manatees, also known as sea cows, often leave the Indian River Lagoon during cold snaps for warmer waters in the canals and had probably followed each other into the pipe, she said.