ORLANDO, Fla. — SeaWorld Orlando is the largest manatee critical care facility in the nation and is caring for 39 of them right now, but one of them is very special.

According to officials, the animal theme park is currently rehabbing the first manatee ever rescued alive in North Carolina.

Brant Gabriel, Curator of Rescue at SeaWorld Orlando, is one of the people taking care of that manatee, making sure it’s eating enough lettuce and putting on weight.

“We’re gonna be giving as much romaine as it can as these guys can handle,” said Gabriel.

He is paying close attention to manatee 2451, which he calls the North Carolina manatee.

According to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, they’ve seen a significant increase in manatee sightings in the state, citing climate change as the main reason why.

“With the climate change in the warmer water, is it something that we’re going to be dealing with in the future? Absolutely,” said Gabriel.

Gabriel shared the manatee was spotted back in October, showing signs of distress, hanging out in the warm water near a water treatment plant in Greenville. Come November, she was still there.

Gabriel shared it was not uncommon for manatees to travel north when seagrass was hard to come by in the St. Johns River. Even though the grass has rebounded, many sea cows like her are creatures of habit.

“In the summer, you know, you will see them up there, not every manatee, but some will go up the coast into the feeding grounds up there, you know, eat,” said Gabriel. “We just need them to slowly start to make their way back to the warmer water when the winter comes in and that’s what we’re dealing with right now. We have animals that are still up a little too far, which means they’re not going to survive very long in that cold water.”

Gabriel and his team made the long drive to Greenville, unsure if they’d be able to spot her. Luckily, they did.

“So we our team quickly got the exit blocked off, stopping this animal from backing into the Tar River and into the deeper water," said Gabriel. "We were able to get this animal into a stretcher and moved out of the deep creek into a transport ban and with the help of some of our partners up there and the vet teams were able to follow us down to Florida and make sure this guy had a successful transport, ten hours in a in an ambulance and making the trek to Florida to get better.”

Over the last seven weeks, Gabriel says she’s improved greatly and is eating on her own. She’s almost ready to be released, making room for more manatees in Florida and beyond that will need help this winter.

“That’s our goal. We want to get them better and we want to get them back out,” said Gabriel.

According to SeaWorld Orlando, biologists are reviewing old sighting charts to see if this North Carolina manatee has frequented any areas in Florida. Based on that, they will determine where she will be released.