Florida Fish and Wildlife biologists spent more than two hours chasing a manatee and her injured calf around old Tampa Bay Monday.

Biologists said the calf has been swimming with a crab trap entangled around its front flipper for more than two weeks.

Biologist Anna Panike was able to cut the trap loose on Saturday but the rope and buoy were still attached to the calf.

"The entanglement is pretty deep into the tissue, so it might be down to the bone," she said. "It was pretty bad. Hopefully, he won't have to lose his flipper but we won't know until the vets can look at him."

Biologists were able to get the 10-foot, 1,000-pound mother manatee in their boat but the calf evaded them.

"We did set the net around the mom and the calf. Unfortunately, the calf kind of scooted out on us,” said FWC biologist Kane Rigney.

Luckily, Panike was able to attach a tracking device to the calf and located it about 45 minutes later. A veterinarian with Lowry Park Zoo was also on hand to assess the injured manatee calf.

The calf's flipper had to be amputated but was otherwise healthy enough to be released back into the bay with its mother.

Biologists say it's important to try and save manatees because they're an endangered species and last year a record number of the sea cows died.