FWC

An attempt to rescue a nine-and-a-half-foot-long stranded pilot whale calf along the beaches of Pelican Bay on Monday was not successful and plans have been made to euthanize the aquatic mammal.

The carcass of an eagle was recovered a little more than a mile from the North Fort Myers nest on Friday morning. There's no information yet from authorities if the dead raptor found was the missing female eagle F23.

Officials in Florida say an injured mother manatee and her calf have been rescued from a river and taken to SeaWorld Orlando for rehabilitation. The Lee County Sheriff's Office shared video on social media showing Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staffers netting the pair on Wednesday. Drone video shows the rescue boat circling around the manatees to corral them in what looks like a fishing net before the crew hauls the sea cows aboard. Officials didn't have details about how the mother manatee was injured or their current conditions. The mother and calf are among at least six manatees rescued in the county since Feb. 19 because of cold stress, watercraft injuries and malnutrition.

Fifty-Eight manatee deaths have been recorded in Lee County since Jan. 1 this year, the majority of those coming since the period of frigid weather hit Southwest Florida according to the final report regarding the recent mass death of manatees in Lee County and made Wednesday by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.

A third panther death is being reported by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the suspected victim of a vehicle collision. The injured 3-year-old, male Florida panther was rescued on January 28 in Polk County in Central Florida by ZooTampa, at the direction of the FWC, for treatment and assessment by their veterinary team.

Most people who won permits to participate in the first Florida black bear hunt since 2015 came away empty-handed. Jeff Nemeth wasn’t one of them — he and his son harvested a 503-pound bear on a private plot in the Panhandle last month. Nemeth, 57, of Inverness, estimated he put in 100 hours of research to prepare and spent $4,000 to $5,000 in travel and gear fees. He plans to shell out an additional $5,000 to an Ocala taxidermist for a full-body mount of the 8-foot-3 animal.

For the first time in a decade, a black bear hunt has returned to Florida. FWC reports that they received over 163,000 applications for the chance to win one of only 172 bear tags.

In a closely watched dispute about First Amendment rights, attorneys for a biologist who was fired because of a social media post after the murder of conservative leader Charlie Kirk squared off against lawyers for the state on Monday. Biologist Brittney Brown, who worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission studying shorebirds and seabirds in the area of Tyndall Air Force Base in the Panhandle, alleges in the lawsuit that her firing on Sept. 15 — five days after Kirk was shot during an appearance at a Utah university — violated her First Amendment rights.

Paul Carlson of Palm Beach County won the title of Lionfish King in this year's FWC Lionfish Challenge, taking out 1,542 of the invasive species.

A rescue crew at the Fort Myers Beach U.S. Coast Guard station saved seven boaters Sunday night after a vessel collision between a 36-foot vessel and barge near Fort Myers Beach.The USCG rescue crew safely transferred all seven boaters to awaiting emergency medical service personnel in stable condition at the station.