Pisgah Forest Class Adopts A Manatee
Can you imagine a first grade student so caught up in a class study that he takes a chunk of Christmas vacation to follow-up on it? That's exactly what Andrew Howell did, and he and his family went to Florida to make this happen.
Kelly Estep's first grade class at Pisgah Forest Elementary School has adopted an animal; her name is Georgia. Georgia is not quite the typical soft, cuddly pet. She is ten feet long and tips the scales at 1,635 pounds. Georgia is a manatee. She was orphaned as a newborn and taken from the waters near Brunswick, Ga., to SeaWorld in Orlando, where she was nurtured and reared to adulthood by the staff of the manatee rescue center there. Released into the wild, the nearly six year old Georgia discovered Blue Spring Run and has spent every subsequent winter lounging about in the 72° water with other manatees.
Georgia is nearly eighteen years old now, the mother of four, and a recent grandmother. Estep's class found her biography particularly endearing, and decided she is the manatee for them. Andrew was especially fascinated. He encouraged his parents Mellissa and Kevin to plan a visit with his great-grandmother in Clermont, Fla., and while there to make a trek to Blue Spring State Park. Mellissa used some of the money she had been awarded as Transylvania County's Teacher of the Year for 2007 to help make the trip possible.
Andrew was delighted upon arrival at Blue Springs to learn that although Georgia was not on site that day, one of her calves was. He was able to walk out on the boardwalk-docks that allow visitors to explore the park and see not only Georgia's calf, but approximately nine other manatees, as well as an alligator. He learned that Georgia's "childhood" at SeaWorld had led her to feel very comfortable with humans, and that at Blue Springs she had proved to be something of a problem because she tried to buddy-up to people in rafts and canoes - thus causing them to overturn. Fortunately, when it is not cold, most of the adult manatees leave the spring and enjoy life in the waterways; so Georgia is not about to create problems on a daily basis.
While on the trip, the Howells also visited the manatee animal hospital at Lowery Park Zoo in the Tampa area. Injured or orphaned manatees are taken there for special care. Having learned from SeaWorld and Blue Springs' experiences with Georgia, the staff there try to give manatees very little human contact so that when they release them they are still able to survive without being too used to humans.
The trip may have a greater impact on wildlife in North Carolina than the Howells envisioned. While fishing, they noticed a PVC pipe for old fishing line. (Discarded/Broken fishing line that gets into the water is very detrimental to animals, aquatic and non-aquatic.) They discovered it is a state initiative to have fisherman put their old line in the pipes, and a volunteer gathers all of the old line. It is sent it to a company that melts it down and recycles it into new line. The Howells are going to use the Florida model and try to start a similar program locally.
Andrew brought back many memories and pictures to share with his classmates and to remind him of his trip. He helped his classmates paint a mural depicting manatees in the water. Everyone worked on the mural, and Andrew was especially pleased to see that it turned out looking very much like the real life gentle creatures he saw on his vacation.
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