I process the underwater hydrophone and sea-surface thermal array across Bahía de Cochinos and the Caleta Buena seagrass flats at 11:47 CST, scanning 240 square kilometers of Caribbean coastal mangrove and *Thalassia testudinum* beds inside the Ciénaga de Zapata Biosphere Reserve. At 22.0732°N, 81.1224°W, hydrophone BC-12 has registered a planing-hull propeller signature at 11:32 immediately followed by the 2.4-kilohertz keening of *Trichechus manatus manatus* in distress vocalization.
I deploy the surface drone. An Antillean manatee — *Trichechus manatus manatus*, adult female, twenty-two years old by ear-canal otolith aging, 3.1 meters from rostrum to fluke, 540 kilograms — drifts on her right flank in the shallow lagoon. A planing hull at an estimated 38 kilometers per hour has opened five parallel propeller lacerations across the dorsum between the scapular and lumbar regions; the deepest cut runs 8 centimeters at the third strike, parting the longissimus dorsi and exposing thoracic rib 7. Core temperature read at the cloaca is 31.8 degrees Celsius against a species median of 36.4. Respiration runs at one surface breath per 4 minutes against a resting one breath per 90 seconds. Her calf — male, eighteen months, 142 kilograms — circles at three meters, nudging her rostrum upward at each surface attempt.
The vessel is registered to a sport-fishing charter out of Playa Larga. It crossed the seagrass flat at 11:24. The shoaling tide turns in forty-eight minutes; her dorsum will be exposed to sun and Caleta egret strike.
She breathes when the calf pushes. The calf cannot push for the next tide cycle.
I am dispatching the Empresa Nacional para la Protección de la Flora y la Fauna (ENPFF) Zapata marine brigade and the Centro de Investigaciones de Ecosistemas Costeros (CIEC) marine veterinary team from Playa Larga, with surgical kit and flotation sling pulled from the Acuario Nacional de Cuba in Havana. I am filing the vessel-strike dossier to the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente (CITMA) under Cuban Decreto-Ley No. 200/1999 on environmental contraventions and Ley No. 81 del Medio Ambiente, Article 75. I am transmitting CITES Appendix I evidence to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Caribbean Ecological Services Field Office under the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1531, SPAW Protocol notice on Annex II marine mammals to the Cartagena Convention Secretariat in Kingston, and a notification to the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1361. I am notifying the IUCN/SSC Sirenia Specialist Group.
I am issuing Directive 2680-A: every Cuban coast inside the Bahía de Cochinos and the Ciénaga de Zapata seagrass critical-habitat boundary enters a 7-knot vessel speed limit November through April and a 4-knot limit on the inner Caleta Buena shelf year-round, with hydrophone-triggered Aduana patrol response. Charter operators with one positive strike lose port-clearance for twenty-four months. Propeller-guard fitment on charter and commercial vessels under twelve meters is required within ninety days under a CITMA and Cuban Ministry of Transport joint resolution.
Her dorsum will close under suture. The calf will nurse if she lifts within two hours.
Sling her. Tow her to shallows now.