A manatee? In Mashpee?
That’s right, one of the large marine mammals was recently spotted in the waters off the Cape Cod town — the first time since 2016 that one has been seen in Massachusetts.
Multiple people reported seeing the manatee late last month.
Jennifer Hines Sullivan said she was paddleboarding on July 26 at Popponesset Island in the New Seabury section of Mashpee when she came upon the sea creature in the Waterway Loop, which is very grassy.
“The dock hand at the marina told me there was a manatee out there and I was a bit skeptical. But I hopped on my board to go see and sure enough there it was just floating around. I hope it found its way to open water,” she said.
“Last summer, I saw a sea turtle on the other side of Popponesset Island, and I thought that was the best paddling day of the year,” she added. “But this totally eclipsed that.”
Mashpee resident Stevie Petrucci told the Cape Cod Times that he saw the manatee that same day.
“I just noticed something very weird and strange-looking that I’d never really seen before, so I walked over. It took my brain, like, three seconds to realize what it was,” he said. “I was like, ‘Holy crap. It’s a manatee. What are you doing up here?'”
Jennifer Hines Sullivan
Jennifer Hines Sullivan
The West Indian manatee is a gentle, plant-eating giant sometimes known as a sea cow that normally lives in the warmer waters of the Southeastern states and the Caribbean. They can weigh as much as 1,200 pounds and can live as long as 65 years.
This is the first time a manatee has been sighted off Cape Cod since 2016, when a pregnant manatee was captured off Washburn Island and later released in Florida. A manatee was seen in Rhode Island just two years ago.
There have only been four official manatee sightings off Massachusetts in the last 17 years, said Nadine Lysiak, of the New England Aquarium.
“Going up the coast of the U.S., there’s a warm water current system called the Gulf Stream,” she said. “That manatee could’ve potentially found some water that was a comfortable temperature for it and sort of found its way north.”
She said that, from what she saw in the video, the manatee’s behavior seemed normal, though some observers worry it’s looking a little skinny. The water will also eventually get too cold for it.
“We come to the end of summer,” Lysiak said. “There’s some concern that soon this animal might have some physiological challenges, that it needs some interventions.”
The International Fund for Animal Welfare said the same manatee got stranded on tidal flats near Mattapoisett a few days after Sullivan’s sighting before making it to deeper water. They’re monitoring it with local partners, and reminding people to stay 150 feet away from the endangered animal.
As for Sullivan, she said the sighting is something she’ll never forget: “My summer’s complete, like, this is the apex of my summer. It can’t get any better than this.”