A Manatee in Oyster Bay?

Hows the Water - September 3, 2010

(reprinted with permission from the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot)

We seem to have had a very unusual visitor in Oyster Bay waters this Labor Day weekend.  There were multiple sightings of a manatee.  The Friends of the Bay office received voice and emails on Sunday and Monday of Labor Day weekend that a manatee had been seen in Mill Neck Creek.  Eric Scheblein reported that he saw the manatee in Mill Neck Creek, and that he followed the manatee as it headed out towards the Bayville Bridge, following the outgoing tide.  Another caller expressed concern for the manatee, and wanted to know who would be able to assist the animal, if it showed signs of distress. 

Dave Relyea and I went out to look for Corrigan (our nickname for the manatee, after the famous aviator, Wrong Way Corrigan) on Monday, but did not see him.  On Tuesday, during our water quality monitoring run, our volunteers looked carefully, but to no avail.  Hopefully, Corrigan is heading back towards southern waters before the water cools in Long Island sound and he gets in trouble. 

A manatee was spotted as for north as Massachusetts in 2008.  According to the website of the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program “late in September 2008…a manatee either crossed or traveled up Buzzards Bay to appear in the cold waters of Cape Cod Bay in East Dennis, MA, on the north side of Cape Cod about October 1, 2008. The Manatee could not find its way back around Cape Cod, so on 12 October a rescue was attempted by a wildlife rescue group from Florida.” Unfortunately, this manatee did not survive the trip back to Florida.  In August of 2008, a manatee was reported in Stonybook, and in 2009 one spent time at Point Judith in Rhode Island, so it is not impossible that a manatee would come to Oyster Bay.  Why not, we all know it’s a beautiful place to visit!

The waters have been very warm this summer, with temperatures nearing 80 degrees.  It is the warmest I have recorded in the years I have been doing water quality monitoring for Friends of the Bay.  Despite the warm water temperatures, the Dissolved Oxygen levels have been very good.  Without having a complete analysis done, there were very few times when the levels were below 3.5 mg/L of dissolved oxygen, and those lower levels occurred mostly in the back areas of Mill Neck Creek, or the southern end of Cold Spring Harbor.  It would seem to be an attractive habitat for a visiting manatee.  The bluefish were certainly happy – we saw quite a few jumping when doing water quality monitoring on Tuesday. 

And, just to do justice to “Wrong Way Corrigan” let me explain this brave aviator’s nickname. Douglas Corrigan was a pilot and aircraft mechanic.  He purchased an OX5 Robin monoplane and modified it for a transatlantic journey.  Corrigan applied to the government in 1935 for permission to make a flight from New York to Ireland.  He was not given permission since the federal authorities thought the plane was not capable of making the trip.  Corrigan applied several times more, but was always turned down.  By 1938 he had grown tired of waiting.  He flew from California to New York.  According to his flight plan, he was to return to California.  He took off from Floyd Bennett Field in heavy fog, and headed east.  He had been told by airport officials to head in any direction but west.  They expected him to turn west and return to California, but he kept heading east. 

Corrigan claimed that he had very poor visibility and that according to his compass he was heading west.  28 hours and 13 minutes later, he arrived at Baldonnel Airport, Dublin, Ireland.  He claimed that he had been “following the wrong end of the compass needle”.  Authorities did not believe his story about the compass, but could not make him change his explanation.  Corrigan was treated as a hero when he returned to the United States.  He was given a ticker tape parade with more than a million people watching (more than came to see Lindbergh).  He never publicly acknowledged that he intentionally flew to Ireland.  

Only the most competent and bravest pilots would attempt a transatlantic flight at the time “Wrong Way Corrigan” made his journey.  So, perhaps naming our manatee Corrigan is a fitting acknowledgement of the incredible journey he has made, far from his native waters. 

Not "our" manatee - but this one certainly looks tired from a long swim!