Lee County man arrested for harassing manatees, FWC says

A St. James City man was arrested after authorities found videos of him having contact with manatees.

Gary Stone, 68, remains in Lee County Jail and is accused of one count of molesting or injuring a manatee and one count of destroying, selling, or molesting turtle eggs. His bail is set at $10,000, records show.

Stone was arrested on Wednesday, according to a news release from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Investigators with the FWC obtained information that indicated Stone was involved in filming prohibited interactions with manatees and was in possession of a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle.

According to the agency, Stone posted videos of both interactions on his social media pages.

Neighbors of Stone said he is known for posting videos and photos of himself interacting with manatees. Their neighborhood in St. James City is very peaceful, said Patty Bireley. Neighbors often see manatees and dolphins.

Bireley said she’s watched the videos of interactions Stone has had with some of the marine mammals.

“Initially I thought, oh it’s kind of neat to have such close contact but I didn’t realize that he was encouraging them to come to him,” Bireley said. “It puts a different light on it, actually.”

According to an affidavit for Stone’s arrest, the FWC has received numerous complaints over the last few years in reference to Stone’s interactions with sea cows.

Investigators said Stone told them he had been doing informal research for the past 10 years and that he’s a certified biologist.

In May of last year, authorities searched his home and found thousands of videos and pictures with manatees.

One of the photos was of a loggerhead turtle, which an FWC biologist identified as a threatened species.

“His interactions are considered harassment and are a violation of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act,” the affidavit states. “In general, harassment is an intentional or negligent act which significantly disrupts a manatee’s normal behavior patterns, including resting, feeding, mating and nursing activity.”

Stone’s Facebook page is littered with videos of him playing with manatees. In one video from 2018 he cradles a manatee’s snout with his feet. He appears to have named the manatee Studly.

In another video from February, Stone pulls barnacles off a manatee.

Stone’s interactions with the gentle sea creature “can induce extreme consequences for them,” the affidavit states.

“When manatees get used to human contact, they lose their fear of humans and learn to approach humans/vessels which increases the likelihood that they could be hit and killed by vessels,” the affidavit states.