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Manatee Sightings Update: April 2022

April 1, 2022 | ,
Wayne Hartley, Manatee Specialist, and Cora Berchem, Director of Multimedia and Manatee Research Associate, take "roll call" on a cold winter morning at Blue Spring State Park. Photo courtesy David Schrichte.
Wayne Hartley, Manatee Specialist, and Cora Berchem, Director of Multimedia and Manatee Research Associate, take "roll call" on a cold winter morning at Blue Spring State Park. Photo courtesy David Schrichte.

By Cora Berchem, Director of Multimedia and Manatee Research Associate
All activities conducted under permits DEP #02042213 and USFWS #MA791721-6.

See photos and videos of adoptees and other manatees sighted recently and during the 2021–2022 season at Blue Spring State Park by Wayne Hartley, Manatee Specialist, and Cora Berchem, Director of Multimedia and Manatee Research Associate.

You can watch more videos from the manatee season on our Webcam and YouTube pages. Many of the manatees featured below are in our Adopt-A-Manatee® program.

Adoptee Phyllis makes a visit to Blue Spring on March 22, 2022. Manatee Specialist Wayne Hartley thinks it’s possible she may be pregnant! Recorded with our underwater webcam. Video ©Save the Manatee Club.
A brief cool, rainy period caused the St. Johns River to cool in mid-March and brought in 33 manatees to Blue Spring. Lenny (pictured above) was one of them, along with Lucille, and Una.
Doc was spotted visiting Blue Spring State Park on March 16, 2022.
Adoptee Aqua and manatee Rocky (not an adoptee) on our underwater webcam on January 16, 2022. Video © Save the Manatee Club.
Here’s Merlin posing on our underwater webcam in the protected warm-water sanctuary at Blue Spring State Park in Spring 2021. Video © Save the Manatee Club.
This photo taken of Lucille on March 15 clearly shows her flipper scarring from previous monofilament entanglement.
Nick (at left) was one of 465 manatees who visited Blue Spring on a chilly day at the beginning of February.
It’s not just manatees who show up on our webcams at Blue Spring State Park. On February 10, 2022, we captured a manatee playing with a turtle! Video © Save the Manatee Club.
Manatee Sharon, her calf, and a group of friends go by on our underwater webcam in the protected warm-water sanctuary at Blue Spring on November 19, 2021. The video starts with Sharon blowing bubbles! Video © Save the Manatee Club.
After her release in September 2020 after being treated for severe monofilament entanglement, we are always glad to see Una. Here she is on March 14, 2022.
We love watching manatee and alligator interactions at Blue Spring. Manatees and gators peacefully coexist at the park, but every now and then a gator inadvertently startles a group of manatees, such as this one does when climbing over a log. Big splashes ensue! Recorded with our above-water webcam on February 2, 2022. Video © Save the Manatee Club.
Pippen, wearing a “tag” or tracking device, follows Skiper and her calf. Pippen was rescued as a small orphan and released at Blue Spring in January 2022. He is wearing a tracking device, so researchers can monitor his movements. The calf is Skiper’s first one, and it is doing very well and growing. Recorded with our underwater webcam on January 22, 2022. Video © Save the Manatee Club.

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