It’s been two months since Snooty the manatee’s death at the South Florida Museum, just one day after his 69th birthday celebration.
This weekend, the museum is hosting a memorial celebration for this official mascot of Manatee County.
Jeff Rodgers and Martha Wells are still in mourning after the loss of Snooty, the manatee they felt was part of their family.
Rodgers is the Provost and Chief Operating Officer of the museum, while Wells is the museum's Chief Community Engagement Officer.
Between the two of them, they enjoyed nearly two decades of daily interactions with the oldest known manatee living in captivity.
It was only days after his 69th birthday that Snooty drowned after he got caught in a normally closed-off plumbing access area in his tank.
A report showed some at the museum knew about the damage to the plumbing access panel, but did not take the appropriate steps to fix it.
The museum made those findings public.
Shortly after the report’s release, we learned that Marilyn Margold, the Director of Living Collections and head of Snooty’s care, was no longer working at the museum.
I spoke with Rodgers and Wells about how the staff and the museum as a whole are coping. They hope to honor Snooty’s legacy by continuing to rehabilitate injured manatees—they’ve helped 30 so far.
The USDA oversees the program, and is still considering its future.
Jeff Rodgers: “I think we bonded that very first day and I saw him nearly every day for 13 years.”
Martha Wells: “He really knew how to make you feel special.”
Virginia Johnson: “I saw the report. We read it. It says the most devastating thing ever—that it was a preventable situation. How do you take that?”
Jeff Rodgers: “Hard. It was the hardest thing for any of us to grapple with in this whole situation.”
Virginia Johnson: "How long was Marilyn Margold here at the museum?"
Jeff Rodgers: “She was here for nearly 10 years.”
Virginia Johnson: “So like you, a really deep relationship with Snooty—How hard was it to lose her, as people talked about her like she was Snooty’s mom?
Jeff Rodgers: “Very difficult…We feel like we are making the right moves to make sure that the community has confidence in our ability, that the manatee rehabilitation world has confidence in our ability, and we need to move our program forward. And sometimes you make difficult steps to make sure that you are moving in that direction.”
(I reached out to Margold but have not heard back yet. We hope to speak with her in the future. We interviewed her ever year when doing the story of Snooty’s birthday celebration. She was kind and knowledgeable.)
Virginia Johnson: “Being this honest could have put you guys at risk for your future plans to maybe be a future rehab facility. But you did it anyway.”
Martha Wells: “Honesty is not a risk. Honesty us what we have to do as a learning organization as an education organization—it’s part of who we are.”
The Snooty Memorial Open House is Sunday, September 24, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Bishop Planetarium will have a multimedia tribute, and visitors can work on memorial projects honoring Snooty as well as visit the Parker Manatee Aquarium to see the current rehab manatees.