Florida News

Rehabbing manatees can be stressful work. It's her 'whole life'

WUSF | By Sky Lebron

Published September 11, 2025 at 1:14 PM CDT

Edmonds says she's been working with animals for nearly 40 years, including multiple manatee rehab centers.

WUSF's Sky Lebron recently visited with Edmonds as part of a conversation for The Bay Blend daily podcast.

In this interview, she starts off by introducing you to the three newest manatees at the center, who were brought in a few months back. They all have a little something in common.

"These three animals had never been rescued or identified before, so they didn't have names," Edmonds said. "And [their names are] Crane, because she came from Crane's Bayou. And then Mandalore, because she came from Blue Spring. And Blue Spring — I'm a Star Wars fan — reminded me of the living waters on Mandalore. So it was my way to slip in some Star Wars. It always has to relate ... and then Kyber is from Crystal River, and it's the kyber crystal that's in your lightsaber.

ALSO READ: Florida Department of Environmental Protection argues it's not responsible for manatee protection

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Those are some deep cut Star Wars pieces, too. It's not just like, 'oh, I named her Leia because I like Star Wars.'

There's already a Leia!

What does a day-to-day look like in terms of trying to rehab a manatee who's in this secondary phase now?

When they get here and you have animals transfer from hospitals, they should be medically cleared and have no medical issues that you're worried about.

So it should just be helping the animals gain weight and thrive, adjusting to a new facility. We do that a lot.

But when we come in daily, it's cleaning the pool and offering food. They eat at least 10% of their body weight a day.

And so, you think you have a 100-pound animal that'll be 10 pounds of food. But the largest is a 500-pound animal, so she's going to eat 50 pounds of food a day.

These three are actually eating 25% of their body weight. So it's about 300 pounds of food a day for all of them.

"These three [manatees] are actually eating 25% of their body weight, yeah. So it's about 300 pounds of food a day for all of them," Virginia Edmonds said Crane, Mandalore and Kyber

How do you — as a person who's now working with them every single day, making sure that they're fed, making sure that your observations are accurate — how do you then get them to pass that threshold? When is it comfortable in your mind to say 'OK, maybe they're ready to be released?'

In order to teach them where a warm water site is, we wait until winter to release them, and then they go to the warm water site that their individual moms would have used, which is usually close to their rescue site.

Our targets are usually January, February, March, and it depends on where they are going to be released.

So we know, come September, October, November, December, we start really looking at them and saying, 'Are they gaining weight?'

So I guess for a lot of people, they think about deadlines. Like business deadlines. 'I needed you to get me this proposal by December or January.' For you, do you feel the same way? That pressure to get them ready for that release date?

Yes, we do. We have a stressful job. Everyone thinks working with animals is so glamorous and exciting. 'I'd love to work with animals!' But they're living things, and it can be very stressful. You want to protect them, and you need to when they're here, too. They need the best conditions.

"Our targets [for releasing the manatees] are usually January, February, March, and it depends on where they going to be released. So we know come September, October, November, December, we start really looking at them and saying, 'are they gaining weight?'" Edmonds said.

I guess there's also no 'hey, it's a holiday! I'm gonna take time off. I don't have to check on them. It's Christmas, it's Thanksgiving.' You don't get that luxury, right?

I've worked with animals for 38 years now, so it's been my whole life, and I'm used to it. I have to get used to other people not being used to it more when everyone's like, 'You don't get Christmas off?' and I go, 'No. why is that a big deal?'

Over the course of your career, how many manatees do you think you've rehabilitated?

Probably 500.

Wow. Is that something you ever think about? Like, 'I've helped out a lot of manatees.'

No, I often say I am on the negative side of humble. Again, just doing this job and being where I am and being able to do this was never anything I imagined I'd be doing. So it doesn't make me special. [The manatees] are special. To me, it's always about the animals, and it's not about me.

I think both can be true. You could be special too. They're special, but you could be special too.

Yeah, and I'm glad that I was able to do that, you know, help that many manatees and and be able to release probably more than half of those animals.

You can check out the manatees at the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, too, just make sure you're quiet around them.

Edmonds says every ticket you buy helps these manatees get fed, rehabbed, and eventually, sent back out to live their chill lives out in the wild.