A manatee was recently spotted off the coast of Massachusetts for the first time in almost a decade and scientists want to rescue it before it succumbs to the cold water or lack of food, they said Friday.

The threatened species, which makes its habitat in warmer southern Gulf waters in places like Florida, was first seen July 26 off the southwestern coast of Cape Cod in the area of Nantucket Sound. A woman took a video of it swimming alongside paddle boarders in an inlet surrounded by marsh grass.

A few days later, the animal was seen stranded on the tidal flats in Mattapoisett. Bystanders who found the manatee beached on the flats around sunrise pushed it back into the water, said Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries Protected Species Program Manager Erin Burke.

It hasn't been spotted since, Burke said, but a team with the International Fund for Animal Welfare is standing by to rescue the animal.