State and federal wildlife officials are investigating reports of a manatee found with “Trump” drawn on its back in a Florida river.
The aquatic mammal was spotted over the weekend in the Homosassa River in Citrus County, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed. The area is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Tampa.
Diver Hailey Warrington, who took video of the manatee, told KTLA sister station WFLA in Tampa that the sighting sickened and disturbed her.
“The first thing that went through my mind is, Who would do it? Who would do something like that?’” Warrington said. “I mean, this is an animal that Citrus County itself has protected and educated people on for years and years and years.”
Warrington knows the water well, as both an environmental specialist and a captain who takes tourists and locals on tours to see manatees safely and responsibly from a distance.
“I call them floating potatoes because that’s really all they [are,] I mean they’re as docile as a rock,” she said. “You can’t see a manatee ever be aggressive…they’re like little puppy dogs.”
Warrington said she reported what she saw to state and federal wildlife officials right away. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Florida’s Fish and Wildlife immediately launched an investigation.
“West Indian manatees are essential members of the ecosystems in which they inhabit and are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act,” USFWS Director Aurelia Skipwith said in a statement.
The manatee does not appear to be seriously injured, officials said. It appears that the word was written in algae that had grown on the animal’s back, not scratched into its skin.
Warrington told WFLA she believes the scrape marks were most likely made with fingernails.
“They scraped across it and down to create the letters and eventually they hit the skin,” she explained. “There was no superficial wounds from what I saw.”
Wildlife officials are looking for any information regarding the animal’s harassment. Tips can be reported at 888-404-3922. The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit group that protects endangered animals, is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the case.
Harassing a manatee, a federal crime, is punishable by a $50,000 fine and up to one year in prison.