Crocodile in Satellite Beach drainpipe released into the lagoon nearby

Where is the 9-foot "Melbourne Beach" crocodile?

That's not really its nickname, but the federally endangered animal has become somewhat of a multimedia star in Brevard, thanks to several sightings of the croc in the Melbourne Beach area.

In May, a crocodile popped up in a Satellite Beach plaza and was eventually relocated to a nearby culvert drain pipe, according to the Satellite Beach Police Department and Florida Fish and Wildlife.

Facebook posts with photos showing a crocodile

a Facebook post on June 27: crocodile spotted in the canal between Kenwood Court and Cinnamon in Satellite BeachJune 27

Below is a recap.

http://www.facebook.com/satellitebeachcommunitynews

On June 30, a Satellite Beach community Facebook page posts photos of a crocodile and a map of the sighting: "Crocodile Spotted This Week In Satellite Beach … One Of Several In Our Area This Year - This One Spotted Off Samson Island And Also South Near Desoto Park."

when it initially came out of the ditchit's pretty decent. it gets it coming out of the drain pipe with the FWCit immediately launches itself upward to try to get awaythere was an alligator trapper there who's very well known thruout the counties that handle the alligators. the trapping is exactly the same but bc it's a federally endangered animal they have to wait for a team to come up from ocala. then they had to wait for a supervisor to show up. so he made sure they were doing everythingright. talking them through it. they were just sitting aroudn waiting, to see if it moved. from the time they showed up, they had it out and on that board that we posted on Facebook within 15 minutes.“When we first got the call, somebody snapped a picture of it right on the side of South Patrick (Drive). One of our officers called it in. FWC, they immediately sent that trapper out. had to go through the right channels.is it the same one as the one in Melbourne Beach? yes, i'm pretty sure that's whatthose guys said, that it's been in the area for a bit.of course for it to be on the side of a major road and next to a bicycle path,obviously there's 2 concerns there. No. 1 for this federally protected animal.and No. 2, it's on a bike path.honestly crocodiles are more shy than alligators.didn't want people tofor where it was and the exact proximity of the bike path and the busy roadway,it didn't seem like a lot of senseafter 35 yrs, i've seen a lot of stuff, so i let those guys experience that.sgt. anderson, lieutenant kinsey and lt. holland, but i think the chief's adminmay have referenced them. i think that's

this is the first crocodile you've ever seen.

i'e been in law enforcement 35 years. i can pretty much say that nothing surprises me anymore. we've seen alligators. i think what's important, tho is thatbased on some of the comments we've been getting. based on where it was and wewere worried about it comiong out and potentially getting hit by a car and killingthis endangered animal. ppl walking and their dogs. it made a lot of sense to theexperts to safely relocate it.my understanding is that it is part of the federal guidelines that they do notrelease the specific location of where they're relocated.

I was like 15 feet. the big thing was we wanted to stay out of the way.on the east side of South Patrick in front of the office building just to thesouth of Ocean Spray Car Wash.a dog grooming place in the back of that office.

the one main guy there who's interacted w/it before. Frank Robb

This crocodile was not removed from the area. It was removed from the culvert due to concern for the welfare of the animal. It was released only a short distance away from its capture location in the culvert back into the Indian River Lagoon.

Carly Jones

Fish and Wildlife Research InstituteFlorida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission