MIAMI — Ilya, the wayward manatee, survived the winter and was spotted in Biscayne Bay in South Florida.

Biologists at the U.S. Geological Survey Thursday said he was identified by a scar on his head and notches on his tail. These markings match his record in a visual identification database maintained to research the manatee population.

Last year, Ilya was flown to Florida aboard a Coast Guard C-130 cargo plane after being rescued from a small waterway between northern New Jersey and Staten Island, N.Y. He was huddling near an outfall pipe at a refinery to stay warm. The water temperature was 53 degrees — below the 68 degrees manatees need to survive.

Ilya has migrated in the summer up to Massachusetts in recent years, but he dithered in New Jersey too long.