Second manatee death in Colombia

A second manatee died in Colombia’s San Silvestre wetland on April 15, days after a baby manatee was found dead in the same water system in Barrancabermeja. (vanguardia.com) The second animal was an Antillean manatee male measuring about 2.8 meters and weighing roughly 250 kilograms, according to local reports and the Barrancabermeja environment secretary. Fishermen found it near the Club Náutico sector after residents said they had seen it weakened days earlier. (vanguardia.com; bluradio.com) The first case was reported on April 11, when fishermen found a dead neonate about 1.4 meters long in Kikelandia, a sector of the same ciénaga hit by a gasoline spill in October 2025. Vanguardia reported that local authorities had linked that earlier spill to about 500 barrels of gasoline, while Blu Radio reported 400 barrels. (vanguardia.com; bluradio.com) Barrancabermeja officials said they will convene an urgent meeting with the Environmental and Agrarian Prosecutor’s Office of Santander to press for faster action by environmental agencies. The city’s environment secretary, Leonardo Granados, also said the administration had started legal action after the two deaths. (vanguardia.com; eltiempo.com) The immediate dispute is over cause. Granados said hydrocarbon contamination is the leading suspected factor, while Ecopetrol said it could not assign responsibility before necropsy results are complete. (eltiempo.com) San Silvestre is not just wildlife habitat. It is one of Barrancabermeja’s main wetland systems and a water source for the city, which is why repeated reports of fuel odor and wildlife deaths have drawn local political pressure. (eltiempo.com; runap.parquesnacionales.gov.co) The species at the center of the case, the Antillean manatee, is protected in Colombia and listed as threatened nationally under the Environment Ministry’s 2024 official species resolution. Conservation groups working in Colombia describe the subspecies as endangered in the country because wetland loss, fishing gear and water degradation keep shrinking its habitat. (minambiente.gov.co; colombia.wcs.org) Local outlets say the two April deaths fit a longer pattern around Barrancabermeja’s wetlands. Blu Radio and Q’hubo both reported that 17 manatees have died in the San Silvestre and El Llanito wetland systems over the past seven years. (bluradio.com; qhubobucaramanga.com) What happens next is more concrete than the accusations: necropsy results, the prosecutor-backed meeting, and whatever cleanup or enforcement follows in San Silvestre. For Barrancabermeja, the question is whether two manatee deaths in five days finally force a response that outlasts the next spill. (eltiempo.com; vanguardia.com)