A necropsy has been completed on Snooty the manatee, with officials saying Monday that he died from drowning.

The death of the beloved manatee came not long after a celebration of his 69th birthday. The South Florida Museum announced Snooty's death on Sunday.

The museum, normally closed on Monday, will reopen Tuesday.

"A quick assessment showed that an underwater hatch that's used to access plumbing that's associated with our life support system had somehow been knocked loose and was opened," Jeff Rodgers, Provost and Chief Operating Officer of the South Florida Museum, had said Sunday. "The manatees had access to get into this tight area.

"The young manatees were able to get in and out of that, but it appears that Snooty was able to get into the area, but he was not able to extract himself from that situation."

According to museum officials, Snooty was born on July 21, 1948, at the Miami Aquarium and Tackle Company — the first recorded birth of a manatee in human care.

We'll post more details shortly.