Cost of rescue is second to saving manatee, agencies say

and eliot caroom

A week and a half ago, dozens of people helped pull a 1,100-pound Florida manatee named Ilya from a small creek outside a Linden oil refinery.

The endangered herbivorous sea cow was lifted from the water with a 300-foot long, 557-pound net, trucked to Atlantic City and then loaded aboard a Coast Guard C-130 cargo plane destined for Florida.

The flight alone would have cost thousands of dollars, but the total cost of the rescue operation has still not been determined.

At least 15 experts from local and federal agencies and nearly 20 employees from the ConocoPhillips Bayway Refinery assisted in pulling Ilya to safety from Morses Creek off the Arthur Kill. Many of the participating agencies refused to release how much the rescue cost, saying concern for Ilya outweighed any expense.

"It costs what it costs, and it varies so much from time to time," said Charles Underwood, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spokesman based in Jacksonville, Fla.

The wayward manatee was initially spotted on Oct. 15 huddled by a discharge pipe at the Linden oil refinery, where the water was in the low to mid 70s -- about 10 degrees warmer than water in the channel, according to Underwood. Temperatures below 68 degrees pose a danger to manatees.

A nor'easter thwarted initial rescue efforts by federal wildlife agents and a local group, the Brigantine-based Marine Mammal Stranding Center, and then Ilya disappeared from his temporary camp at the oil refinery. He was reportedly seen in the waters near the Bayonne Bridge and off Jersey City, but the sightings could not be confirmed, said Robert Schoelkopf, co-director of the Brigantine center.

Then nearly 11 days ago, Ilya reappeared and an all-day rescue effort began.

A volunteer dive team from Point Pleasant, a veterinarian from the Miami Seaquarium, and personnel from Florida and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, along with dozens of refinery employees operating 18- to 20-foot boats and a crane, cornered the 10-foot-long manatee.

After lifting Ilya from the water, rescuers transported the sea cow to the Brigantine-center, where Ilya was kept in an enclosed pool heated to 82 degrees and fed as much lettuce as he could eat. Two days worth of meals for Ilya cost $300, according to Schoelkopf.

Schoelkopf said he was still calculating the overall cost of the rescue, but said the major expenses were the heating pool and manpower.

The Coast Guard flew Ilya from the Atlantic City International Airport to Florida on what they said was an already-scheduled operational training flight.

The cost of flying a Coast Guard C-130 cargo plane can range between $2,500 to $5,800 an hour, depending on the model.

But, "there is no additional cost to the taxpayer to support this mission, because training was already scheduled," said Lorraine Brooks, an assistant public affairs officer for the Coast Guard. "We just went ahead and coordinated that with the effort of returning the manatee."

Mike Karlovich, spokesman for the ConocoPhillips refinery, said up to 20 employees worked on Ilya's rescue all day.

"Our focus is on the manatee, not the cost," he said. "This was an endangered species a thousand miles outside of its habitat."