News

Blue Spring State Park Adoption Update

By Wayne Hartley, Manatee Specialist

We get many more adoptee sightings at Blue Spring in the off-season than we used to. We often have hundreds of non-adoptee sightings every month. Not hundreds of manatees but hundreds of sightings. If the same manatee comes in five different days, that is five sightings. With so many more manatees in the St. Johns River, more wander in during the warm months. It also helps that we have the manatee cam constantly filming and the manatee observers along the spring run protecting and interpreting the manatees and, I am sure, fish, alligators, and the birds. In the past, manatees came and went without notice. For example, a manatee named Beetle (BS3) once slept an entire busy summer day in a far corner of the swimming area, and the public never noticed!

In a somber vein, a Blue Spring manatee named Hagar (BS942) was recovered near Astor, Florida, on September 9. Hagar was an East Coast manatee that came into Blue Spring during the 2017-18 season and became a regular. In 2020, Hagar, despite the masculine name, had a calf!

Here at Blue Spring, we saw Phyllis a day each in April, May, June, and July, probably dropping in to let us know she was doing well. Brutus was in two days in May. Annie was in one day in July and three days in August. During the summer, we saw eight Blue Spring manatees with calves (none were adoptees). That is great, but now we have to hope they all make it in for the season!