News

By Cora Berchem, Director of Multimedia and Manatee Research Associate

During the summer months, sightings of adoptees are a bit more rare, but we did get a few this year, plus some exciting news from Blue Spring and two releases!

Blue Spring State Park Sightings

Adoptee Phyllis, with her yearling calf, was seen twice during the month of June making a brief visit to Blue Spring:

Adoptee Una made a short visit to Blue Spring in June as well. That’s a first for Una, as we have never seen her during the summer months:

Adoptee Lily made a quick visit to the spring on July 25! 

Sometimes manatees make us laugh: what looked like a “parade” of mom and calf pairs went by our webcam in late June—three mom and calf pairs making a beeline into the spring run!

Blue Spring State Park Update

In early May, the new manatee rescue/release ramp at Blue Spring was completed. This is a major improvement to the wonky stairs leading down to the water that we previously had to use to carry manatees in and out of the water. The new ramp was built with the support of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), The Friends of Blue Spring State Park, state park staff and volunteers, and Save the Manatee Club. In early May, we organized a planting event to put native plants around the ramp to stabilize the ground and make it look more natural. Then, on June 3, the park had the official ribbon-cutting event to open the new manatee ramp.

That same day, alongside our partners from FWC, Volusia County, Brevard Zoo, Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute (CMARI), and the Florida State Park staff and volunteers, we released manatee Churro back into the native habitat. Churro has a long history of rescues and releases. She was initially rescued as a newborn calf together with her severely injured mother, Reckless, in May 2022. They were released together in Port Everglades in early 2024, but unfortunately, mom and daughter separated shortly after release, and the decision was made to relocate Churro to Blue Spring to give her a better chance of survival. She was tagged by CMARI and was doing well throughout the summer, fall, and early winter of 2024, but after a prolonged cold December and January, Churro had not been leaving the spring run to feed in the river and had lost significant weight. The decision was made to intervene and bring her back in for rehab at SeaWorld. She was later transferred to the newly opened manatee rehab facility at Brevard Zoo as one of their first patients. In early June, Churro was cleared for release and is once again enjoying the habitat around Blue Spring. 

Watch the video from Churro and Reckless’ initial release in Port Everglades and learn more about their story:

Just a few weeks after Churro was released, manatee Lizzie was once again ready to go back out into the native habitat, too. Similar to Churro, Lizzie struggled with the cold winter and had lost significant weight. She was rescued in early April and rehabilitated at SeaWorld before going back out into Blue Spring.

Don’t miss: we captured footage of an otter chasing after a fish on our underwater webcam at Silver Springs!