Manatee Webcams

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Underwater Webcam at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park

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Above-Water Webcam at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park

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Above-Water Webcam at Blue Spring State Park

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Underwater Webcam at Blue Spring State Park

About the Blue Spring Manatees

Where are the Blue Spring manatees? While both cameras are live for manatee season (roughly November through March), the manatees on the Blue Spring webcams are wild. When the temperatures are warmer, manatees may venture freely in and out of the spring and return when it gets colder. At night or when the cameras are not working, the feed will switch to a highlights reel. Any people seen in the videos are researchers or other individuals with special permission.

Support for the Manatee Webcams at Blue Spring State Park was made possible by a donation to Save the Manatee Club as a memorial gift in honor of the late Mrs. Norma Norton, a Florida resident who cared deeply for manatees.

Manatee Sighting Update

By Wayne Hartley & Cora Berchem Comments Off

Friday, December 8, 2023

The river temp was 62.6°F (17°C), which makes more sense than yesterday’s, which was just too high to be correct. Researchers were in the water, so the manatees were stirred up and harder to count and ID. We did some special temps for the St Johns River Water Management District. While we did that, the manatees calmed down some. Then, a third of the way into the count, a helicopter hovered over the run, and the longer it stayed, the more manatees fled the run. Cora and I had trouble hearing one another because of the noise from the aircraft. We could still count, but IDing was much harder. We managed to count 511 manatees, and the park counted 492 manatees. I consider those counts close enough to be considered the same. More new arrivals and calves keep coming in! Our Save the Manatee Club adoptees today were Brutus, Paddy Doyle, Moo Shoo & calf, Flash, Gator, Lily, Annie, Phyllis, Philip, and Howie.

See all the updates from the 2023–2024 season!

Get Manatee Updates and Identify Manatees Using Scar Charts

Read Manatee Updates from this season as well as past seasons.
Identify Blue Spring manatees in the Club’s adoption program using Wayne Hartley’s Scar Pattern Chart (pdf).
Identify other manatees in the Club’s adoption program using scar pattern charts (pdf).
See Wayne’s Scar Charts for all of the Blue Spring manatees (pdf).
Investigate the genealogy of the Blue Spring manatees.
Learn about our manatee research work.

Learn More About Blue Spring State Park

As viewers enjoy the webcams at Blue Spring State Park, it is important to keep in mind exactly what we are seeing. We are not only enjoying the manatees but also the serene habitat surrounding these graceful creatures. A habitat like the one at Blue Spring is vital to the survival of manatees. During the winter months, manatees require water temperatures greater than 68° F to survive and prevent the development of a potentially fatal syndrome called cold stress, with symptoms similar to frostbite and hypothermia. Springs provide a constant water temperature of approximately 72° F, making them a preferred winter habitat for manatees when surrounding waterways cool into the mid 60s or below. Further, humans are kept out of the water when manatees are present during the winter months at Blue Spring, giving manatees a peaceful, quiet area to rest and stay warm. Over the years, the number of manatees utilizing Blue Spring in the winter months has greatly increased.

Manatee Research at Blue Spring

Due to the large number of manatees that use Blue Spring, the clear waters, and the easy visibility, the site has become a perfect location for researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey Sirenia Project to carry out photo identification of the manatees. Manatees are photographed and identified by their scar patterns to determine which manatees are returning to Blue Spring each year and construct manatee family trees that show the relatedness of many of the manatees that winter at Blue Spring. In fact, the visual ID and genealogy work performed by former Park Ranger and Park Service Specialist Wayne Hartley is potentially the longest running manatee genealogy record in the state of Florida. In addition to photo ID, Blue Spring has been instrumental in manatee rescue and rehabilitation. The high public visibility of the manatees in the spring allows for sick or injured manatees to be spotted and rescued more easily, which has saved manatees’ lives over the years. The spring has also become a popular site to release rehabilitated manatees because the habitat is so important.

Protecting Springs

Since manatees do rely on these springs for survival, the manatees have become an important catalyst for the protection of the springs and groundwater. Unfortunately, springs such as Blue Spring are at risk as development and subsequent water withdrawals to support such development increases. As more water is drawn from the spring for human use, the area accessible to manatees at these warm water sites shrinks. For this reason, water management districts around the state of Florida are setting limits on groundwater withdrawals that affect springs. This is called the Minimum Flow and Levels (MFL) program. This is a controversial issue as different stakeholders can disagree about how much water is desired for human use, and how much is needed to protect the springs environment and the many species who call it home. It is a reminder to everyone that water conservation is a vital step towards protecting manatees and the environment. Without the springs, these manatees would not be able to gather for warmth during the winter months, and we would not be able to enjoy watching them on the webcams.

About the Homosassa Springs Manatees

During the summer months (April–November), the underwater gates at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park are closed as the wild manatees have ventured out. Permanent residents Ariel and Betsy, along with Heinz and Shantay, who are undergoing rehabilitation, can be seen on the webcams during this time as they freely roam the spring. Since they are permanent residents or rehabilitating manatees in human care, they are fed lettuce and vegetables several times a day. Please remember that it is illegal to feed wild manatees.

Learn More About Homosassa Springs

At Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, visitors can see manatees both in the in-ground pool at the Manatee Care Center and beneath the surface of the spring bowl in the Underwater Observatory. Manatees can be seen in the entire spring above the water, too. Manatees are a subtropical species and cannot tolerate water temperatures below 68 degrees F. The park’s natural freshwater spring bowl remains at a constant 72-degree temperature year-round, serving as vital habitat for manatees and various species of fish who enter from the river. Two manatees who cannot be released into the wild remain at the park year-round, enhancing the park’s daily manatee education programs. These manatees, Ariel and Betsy, are in Save the Manatee Club’s Adopt-A-Manatee® program.

Save the Manatees Partnership with Homosassa Springs

Save the Manatee Club has a historic partnership with Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, dating to 1989 when the Club’s Adopt-A-Manatee program began, and is grateful to the park for this partnership and the wonderful care they give to the manatees. Save the Manatee Club has provided funding for a spring run gate at the park that allows wild manatees to swim into the main spring area, which acts as an important source of warmth in the winter. The Club has also funded heating support tanks, used to treat manatees with cold stress; veterinary care; and the park’s “Manatee Watch” pontoon boat, used for rescues.