The public will get a chance this weekend at Connecticut’s Mystic Aquarium to see a manatee that was rescued off the coast of Cape Cod last month.
The aquarium has been rehabilitating the manatee and has gotten permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow public viewing of the marine animal Saturday and Sunday during regular hours.
The 800-pound pregnant female, dubbed “Washburn,” was picked up in September in Nantucket Sound off Falmouth, Massachusetts, by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The group said the animal was well out of its range and was rescued just before water temperatures dropped below 67 degrees — too cold for it to survive.
The aquarium is preparing the manatee for a return to Florida waters and eventually farther in the ocean.