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Video: Restored to health at SeaWorld, Gnocchi the manatee, returns to the wild in North Palm Beach

Gnocchi gained more than 300 pounds during his rehabilitation at SeaWorld prior to his release at Anchorage Park in North Palm Beach.

Breaking News Staff, Palm Beach Post

NORTH PALM BEACH — Gnocchi the manatee returned to the wild Tuesday after veterinarians gave him a new lease on life.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and marine volunteers released him into the waters off Anchorage Park, seven months after someone spotted him underweight and unresponsive in the water off Lantana.

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Gnocchi, an 8-foot-long manatee released at Anchorage Park, is measured by a Florida Fish and Wildlife biologist Tuesday in North Palm Beach. Found in Lantana in December, Gnocchi was found severely emaciated at only 600 pounds. After several months of rehabilitation at SeaWorld Orlando, Gnocchi was released weighing close to 1,000 pounds.

Gnocchi isn't the only manatee struggling across Florida. At least 1,650 statewide have died since January 2020, TCPalm.com has reported. Hundreds have succumbed to chronic malnutrition as their main food source, seagrass, has been choked out by decades of anthropogenic pollution in the Indian River Lagoon.

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FWC officials took Gnocchi to SeaWorld near Orlando, where veterinarians discovered the 8.5-foot-long sea cow weighed only 620 pounds. He ate several meals per day and weighed 1,000 pounds upon his release Tuesday.

A team of Florida Fish and Wildlife, Manatee Lagoon and SeaWorld workers move an 8-foot-long manatee named Gnocchi down a boat ramp into the water at Anchorage Park Tuesday in North Palm Beach.

If you see an injured or distressed manatee in the wild, call FWC’s wildlife alert hotline at 888-404-FWCC.