Worldwide Efforts

Save the Manatee Club works with researchers and communities worldwide to ensure the survival of manatees around the globe. On International Manatee Day, we want to highlight the dedication shown to imperiled manatees and their aquatic habitat outside of the continental United States.

To support projects like these, donations can be made to our International Rescue Fund to provide assistance to our international partners, our Emergency Rescue Fund to aid work in the United States, and our Amazon Wish List to provide physical items to facilities at home and abroad.

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©Fundación Internacional para la Naturaleza y la Sustentabilidad (FINS)

Wider Caribbean

  • Save the Manatee Club has provided funds and in-kind gifts, courtesy of our supporters’ generous donations, to Wildtracks, the only manatee rehabilitation facility in Belize. Items sent to Wildtracks include milk replacement formula, probiotics and vitamins, thermometers, GPS tracking gear, cameras and binoculars for research, brushes, scales, water pumps, a pressure washer, solar power equipment, transportation and tracking equipment, and much more.
  • We have supported El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Mexico by providing them funding for health assessments and tracking equipment.
  • We have worked with Fundación Internacional para la Naturaleza y la Sustentabilidad (FINS) in Mexico to provide support for the rehabilitation of an orphaned manatee calf. Save the Manatee Club also funded releases in Quintana Roo as well as local education initiatives, including a campaign educating the local population about the rehabilitation process.
  • After Hurricane Maria, we assisted the Centro de Conservación de Manatíes del Caribe in Puerto Rico with funding to help them rebuild their facility. Save the Manatee Club has also worked with the center to create and distribute information in Spanish.
  • Save the Manatee Club has provided education and outreach materials to partners in Cuba and Haiti to help prevent manatee poaching by villagers.
  • In The Bahamas, we have helped provide supplies and resources for a manatee monitoring program.
  • We have helped fund health assessments for manatees in Jamaica and provided educational items for local schoolchildren.

Photos from the Wider Caribbean

Two manatees pictured just outside of Wildtracks. Attached to one manatee, there is a small tracking device.
Two manatees outside the rehabilitation facility, Wildtracks, in Belize. One of the manatees is on soft release and can be seen wearing a tracking device. Photo courtesy Cora Berchem, SMC.
Four members of the Wildtracks team pictured with a variety of items, which were purchased from Save the Manatee Club's wish list. The items include a portable power station, vitamins, thermometers, several bottles of vitamins, and pounds of milk replacement formula.
Members of the Wildtracks team with a shipment of items sent from Save the Manatee Club's wish list. Photo courtesy Wildtracks.
Orphaned calf Pompeyo receiving milk replacement formula from a bottle.
Orphaned calf Pompeyo receiving milk replacement formula from a bottle. Photo courtesy FINS.
The Centro de Conservación de Manatíes del Caribe in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, pictured with debris surrounding the facility and downed trees visible in the background.
Hurricane Maria's impact on the Centro de Conservación de Manatíes del Caribe in Puerto Rico. Save the Manatee Club assisted the facility by providing funds to help them rebuild. Photo courtesy CCMC.
An SMC staff member at the front of a class of young students, reading a story about manatees.
SMC donated manatee story books, coloring sheets, bookmarks, stickers, and pencils to the children of Little Bay School on Jamaica's west coast, and left behind additional materials to be shared with schools in Negril, Jamaica. Photo by Brendan Robinson.

Africa

  • We have supported the African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization (AMMCO), based in Cameroon, through funding outreach and education efforts in Lake Ossa and their expansion to the Nkam River. We have also provided grants for genetic research projects, alternative livelihood programs, and invasive plant species management in Lake Ossa.
  • We sponsored speakers for the African Manatee Symposium in Senegal.
  • Save the Manatee Club contributed funds to help rescue several African manatees trapped behind a dam in Senegal.
  • We have funded alternative livelihood opportunities, as well as education and outreach materials for communities in Nigeria, where manatees are still traditionally hunted for sustenance.
  • Save the Manatee Club also gave a grant to the African Aquatic Conservation Fund for a manatee threat assessment study in Nigeria.
  • In January 2022, we supported the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Research in the successful, first-ever effort by two government agencies to rescue and release an illegally captured African manatee.
  • Save the Manatee Club has provided items for manatee research and education, as well as formula, medicine, and funds for the care of orphaned manatee calves in West Africa.

©African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization (AMMCO)

Photos from Africa

Several people in a boat on Lake Ossa as part of a manatee monitoring program.
A manatee monitoring team in Lake Ossa, located in Cameroon. Photo courtesy Aristide Takoukam Kamla, AMMCO.
A large group of people in shallow water at the bank of a lake collecting an invasive plant and putting them in sacks for disposal.
Local residents around Lake Ossa in Cameroon volunteer to help remove S. molesta by hand. Photo provided by Aristide Takoukam.
A manatee education meeting in a village off the Nkam River in Cameroon. Photo courtesy AMMCO.
Two men sitting in a room with Save the Manatee Club materials in the background, the person on the left is holding a harpoon.
In Senegal, El Hadji Sonko (left) holds his family’s last manatee harpoon, which he symbolically surrendered to Tomas Diagne (right). Photo courtesy of Tomas Diagne.
Four men in a boat on the Kwa Iboe River, monitoring the environment.
Residents of the Nyareenyin Ntong Uno Village in Nigeria along the Kwa Iboe River in Nigeria, conduct environmental monitoring as a result of a program started by the Club and TRCC. Photo by Ikponke Nkanta.
A seated circle of people, including team members from TRCC and local volunteers, around a manatee sculpture having a conversation.
Local conservation partner TRCC meets with youth and other community volunteers assisting with manatee-habitat monitoring in Nigeria. Photo by Ikpongke Nkanta.

©Omacha Foundation

South America

  • We have worked with the Rainforest Awareness Rescue Education Center (RAREC), located in Peru, to help fund a new rehabilitation clinic for Amazonian manatees. The new clinic provides vital care and rehabilitation services while helping train the next generation of manatee experts through their student veterinary program. Save the Manatee Club has also supported the rehabilitation, release, and post-release monitoring of manatees in Peru.
  • Save the Manatee Club has provided funds to the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute for the Sirenians in the Amazon Estuary Research and Conservation Network (SEA). SEA aims to better understand the distribution and stranding events of manatees in the Brazilian Amazon by promoting collaboration between research institutions and other stakeholders, as well as to improve wildlife rescue and management capabilities in the region. Save the Manatee Club funding also supports manatee rehabilitation, professional capacity building, environmental awareness education, and genetic studies.
  • We worked with the Omacha Foundation to ensure the rescue, relocation, and care of several manatees in Colombia to protect them from poaching.
  • We have provided support for health assessments for manatees in Venezuela.
  • We provided funds for the rescue of an orphaned manatee calf in Peru.
  • Save the Manatee Club assisted the University of Quintana Roo in Mexico to support the Third Latin American Manatee Symposium, held in Lima, Peru.
A large room in a new facility with a manatee mural on the left wall, a small graphic with RAREC's name on the back wall, and cabinets and counter space on the right wall. The mural wall displays the logos of the facilities that aided in funding the facility and includes SMC's logo.
The new rehabilitation clinic for Amazonian manatees at RAREC in Peru. Photo courtesy RAREC.
Save the Manatee Club provided funds to fly a veterinarian from Puerto Rico to assist with the rescue and health assessment of a manatee calf in Peru. Photo courtesy RAREC.
Omacha Foundation team members hold up a ruler next to a rescued manatee, taking measurements.
Team members from the Omacha Foundation take measurements and chart scar patterns of a rescued manatee. Photo courtesy Omacha Foundation.
Several team members from SEA surround a rescued manatee and perform a health check.
A rescued manatee in Brazil receives a health assessment. Photo courtesy SEA.