A trio of manatees, including 2 former mates named Romeo and Juliet — are finally being relocated after a viral video showed their isolated conditions, and the guy who helped make it happen is glad something’s finally happening.
Phil Demers is the head of a whistleblower org called Urgent Seas, and a video he posted last month blew up on the Internet — it showed the manatees, specifically Romeo, toiling in despair at the Miami Seaquarium.
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Romeo’s counterpart, Juliet, was being kept separately and also alone in the Seaquarium … not to mention a third manatee named Clarity. After Demers published his video though, public backlash forced the company’s hand.
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Sadly, it doesn’t sound like Romeo and Juliet are going to be reunited anytime soon … and they probably won’t even be released into the wild, and Demers tells us why. Still, the fact the manatees are going to better facilities with proper care is a ‘W’ in his book.
He says the fact this is happening is proof public pressure can, in fact, spur positive change and he’s glad the manatees will get a new lease on life.
The Miami Seaquarium, meanwhile, said this was the plan all along … although, it’s unclear if anyone’s really buying that.