THE SEARCH IS ON ...

Call it the mystery of the missing manatee.

For hours Wednesday, staff from the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission slowly cruised through Destin harbor, searching the waters for a sick manatee thought to have been living in a canal in Sandpiper Cove for a week.

Tuesday night, the wildlife refuge prepared itself for a rescue.

Having contacted the FWC manatee research staff in Tampa and been told that staff members and a boat would be en route to assist, the wildlife refuge had one of its volunteers stay with the manatee in the canal to keep an eye on it overnight. At about 2:45 a.m., the manatee flew the coop.

Amanda Wilkerson, executive director of the wildlife refuge, said news of the manatee's whereabouts had spread and people began disturbing the animal.

"People starting going in and getting bait fish around the animal, wouldn't leave it alone and it just got irritated and left," she said.

Believed to be suffering from cold stress, a sickness that strikes animals less than seven feet in length and causes white, necrotic tissue to form on the animal's face and flippers, the search to find the manatee began early Wednesday morning.

Wildlife refuge staff and FWC research team members loaded onto two boats behind Louisiana Lagniappe and began idling around the harbor, searching boat slips and the open water of Destin's harbor for the missing manatee.

Wilkerson said they still believe the manatee is somewhere in the har- bor and there was virtually no possibility that the animal had escaped into the wide expanse of Choctawhatchee Bay.

"There's no way he made it to the Bay. He wasn't doing too well," she said of the manatee, whom rescuers believe to be a sub-adult.

The wildlife refuge will continue to keep an eye out for the manatee and in the event it is found, will perform a rescue and transport the animal to the FWC's facility in Tampa for additional care.

Wilkerson said once out of the water, the refuge would load the manatee into a box truck on a soft mat and have someone in the back to keep the animal wet and warm for the duration of its journey.

The wildlife refuge had been told that the manatee had been in and out of the canal for more than a week and hadn't moved from the same spot in two days, she said.

"It's a cool thing and everyone wants to see a manatee but at the same time, someone needs to give us a call when they see a manatee, even if it's healthy," she said.

When a manatee is spotted in the area, it is documented by the wildlife refuge and sent to the FWC as part of its manatee research program.

It is highly unusual for a manatee to be in this area this time of year, Wilkerson said. During the winter, manatees head for warmer waters and natural warm water springs.

"He's just in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said.

The manatee, Florida's state marine mammal, is considered an imperiled species by the FWC and the state and federal legislatures have enacted several pieces of legislation aimed at protecting manatees