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Manatee Poo Forces Fla. Beach Closing

'It was disgusting, but mystifying,' one resident says

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 9, 2009 1:36 PM CDT

(Newser) – A Florida beach has reopened after a deluge of manatee poo forced it to close. Vero Beach city employees spent hours burying what may have been a mile-long stretch of dung. Environmental officials blamed the mess on unusual wind patterns. “I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve lived along beaches all my life,” one Vero Beach resident told the Press Journal. “It was disgusting, but mystifying. It looked like Great Dane poop all along the beach.”

A young manatee floats upside down among an estimated over 300 other manatees gathered in a protected warm water canal in Riviera Beach, Fla. on Feb. 5, 2009.
A young manatee floats upside down among an estimated over 300 other manatees gathered in a protected warm water canal in Riviera Beach, Fla. on Feb. 5, 2009.   (AP Photo/Florida Power & Light Company, Doug Murray)
A manatee swims at Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, Fla., in this 2006 file photo.
A manatee swims at Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, Fla., in this 2006 file photo.   (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
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We did a feel and smell test, and based on the description we gave to Florida Fish and Wildlife, they told us it was manatee droppings. I’ve never followed a manatee closely enough to know otherwise. - Charles Vogt, Indian River County Environmental Health Department

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 16 comments
cognitivefilter
Oct 13, 2009 5:20 AM CDT
hahahahaha
divetrader
Oct 10, 2009 11:32 AM CDT
I guess Vero Beach is the asshole of the world according to the Manatees. Vonnegut would be proud of them.
Caps
Oct 10, 2009 6:10 AM CDT
Alot of crap. Has Palin been in Florida?
US • Science

 
Florida • Atlantic Ocean • beach • Manatees • poop • Vero Beach, Fla. • feces

 
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