News

Manatee season is in full swing, and our webcams at Blue Spring State Park and Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park are livestreaming again! Viewers from around the world can enjoy the above and underwater views of manatees from the comfort of their homes, and there is always a chance to spot your adopted manatee on the webcam at Blue Spring!

Our team has been busy installing the cameras leading up to manatee season.  This requires checking all the necessary connections, cleaning the housings, and making sure the livestreams are set up correctly.

While the cameras are a great entertainment tool for the public, they also assist our researchers in many ways. For example, the cameras allow us to collect additional pictures for our photo-ID research at both locations, valuable information that is shared with our partners from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for the Manatee Individual Photo Identification Database (MIPS). We also utilize the webcams to monitor sick and injured manatees and share this information with our partners to help them make decisions on whether a manatee needs to be rescued. The cameras are stationary, but our team can control them remotely to zoom in, pan, or tilt the view to get the best footage. It’s a wonderful tool for “passive observation,” so we can obtain footage and observations without having to get physically close to or in the water with the manatees.

We are extremely grateful for the wonderful partnership with Explore.org and the Florida Park Service on these cameras. Make sure to check them out at ManaTV.org, where you can also find our daily updates from Blue Spring! Check out the Explore.org message board to interact with other viewers and learn more about manatees.