Two rescued manatees named Axle and Gilbert have moved into Clearwater Marine Aquarium for the next stage of their recovery, arriving in late September after being admitted for critical care at ZooTampa earlier in 2026. Axle was pulled from the Venice area suffering from cold stress, while Gilbert was rescued as an underweight orphan calf found with a low body temperature at Sun Springs.
The pair's public debut came after staff spent days helping them settle into their new surroundings, according to Tampa Bay 28. Clearwater Marine Aquarium staff will continue monitoring the manatees' health, behavior and rehabilitation progress as they move through this second stage of care. Dr. Shelly Marquardt said Axle and Gilbert had made tremendous progress since their rescue and would be welcomed for the next phase of rehabilitation, the outlet reported.
What Cold Stress Does to a Manatee
Tanya Ward described cold stress as a condition comparable to human hypothermia, one that can present as pneumonia in affected manatees, per the same report. Cold-stressed manatees can experience lethargy and skin bleaching, and in more severe cases they can lose parts of their tails or pectoral fins. Ward also cautioned that people should not try to help stranded or distressed manatees by returning them to the water before a medical evaluation takes place, since stranded animals need that evaluation first.
The biology behind that warning is well documented: manatees lack thick blubber insulation and keep low metabolic rates, leaving them vulnerable to cold stress syndrome, hypothermia and pneumonia once water temperatures fall below 68 degrees, according to Save the Manatee Club. Prolonged cold exposure can also cause skin bleaching, lesions and immune system suppression, the organization notes.
From ZooTampa to Clearwater's Rehab Pools
Axle and Gilbert arrived at Clearwater Marine Aquarium in late September after being admitted for critical care at ZooTampa earlier in 2026, Tampa Bay 28 reported. That handoff reflects how Florida's manatee care system is structured: the state runs a tiered network of five federally permitted acute care facilities, including ZooTampa, SeaWorld Orlando, Jacksonville Zoo and Homosassa Springs, that stabilize critically ill or injured manatees before transferring them to secondary sites, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Those acute care centers are required to staff round-the-clock veterinary care under their federal permits.
Clearwater Marine Aquarium is part of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership and provides that second-stage rehabilitation care for manatees recovering from illness, injury and other setbacks, helping prepare them for eventual return to the wild. The aquarium hopes to release Axle and Gilbert back into the wild in early 2027.
A Rehab Center Named for a Manatee Pioneer
The two manatees arrived at Clearwater Marine Aquarium on September 23, and public viewing in the Dr. James “Buddy” Powell Manatee Rehabilitation Center officially opened a week later, on September 30, according to the aquarium's Facebook posts documenting the pair's arrival. The center is named for Dr. James “Buddy” Powell, a pioneering manatee researcher and the aquarium's Chief Zoological Officer, who died in July 2025 after more than 50 years of marine conservation work, per Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
That facility has had its own recovery story. Clearwater Marine Aquarium's Manatee Rehabilitation Center sustained more than $2.5 million in damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton in late 2024, which knocked out its life-support filtration systems and forced the temporary transfer of manatees to ZooTampa, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. In 2021, Clearwater Aquarium estimated it would cost $2 million to upgrade its existing pool to house six manatees at a time, along with two smaller pools, as reported by WLRN.
Mortality Trends and Ongoing Protection Debate
Statewide manatee mortality totaled 632 deaths in 2025, a decrease from the five-year average of 731 but still higher than the totals recorded in 2023 and 2024, with winter cold stress, red tide blooms and boat collisions driving the toll, per Save the Manatee Club. Those numbers remain well below the peak of the Atlantic coast Unusual Mortality Event, which federal and state wildlife authorities officially closed in March 2025 after it claimed 1,255 manatees between December 2020 and April 2022 due to severe seagrass loss in the Indian River Lagoon, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the West Indian manatee from endangered to threatened in 2017. Florida also allocated $2 million for fiscal year 2024-2025 through the Florida Manatee Oceanaria Reimbursement Assistance Program to help federally permitted facilities cover in-house care and field rescue costs, per the state wildlife commission.
Axle and Gilbert's recovery follows a similar manatee rescue reported in Hoodline's coverage from last month, in which a Titusville manatee lost a flipper after becoming entangled in a crab trap and was rehabilitated under SeaWorld Orlando's care. For now, anyone who spots a manatee in distress is urged to call Clearwater Marine Aquarium's 24-hour rescue hotline at 727-441-1790 ext. 1, or the FWC's wildlife alert hotline at 888-404-FWCC (888-404-3922), rather than attempting to return the animal to the water without a medical evaluation.
