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Sightings Update: April 2025

Merlin rests at Blue Spring State Park on February 22, 2025.
Merlin rests at Blue Spring State Park on February 22, 2025.

Blue Spring Sightings

Manatee season was very busy at Blue Spring in December and January, but then it warmed up in early February and we thought the season might be over! Late February and early March saw more cold weather and we counted over 400 manatees on February 22 and over 300 on March 8, which might be a record for March. Many of the adoptees returned as well!

We caught this nice video of Merlin on February 2 on our underwater camera.
Phyllis and Aqua, with their respective calves, were seen hanging out with some of the newly released manatees on February 17.
Phyllis may be the attendance champion this year. Since she has a calf, she has been in the spring a lot. Here she is with her calf and an ‘entourage’ of juvenile manatees on February 21, heading towards the St. Johns River in the evening sun.
On February 22, Phyllis also made a quick swim-by on the underwater camera.
Brutus was spotted napping on our underwater camera on February 24 until bothered by some pesky catfish. He went straight back to napping.
Gator was part of a large aggregation on March 3. Can you spot him?
Philip made an appearance on our underwater webcam on March 5 but was photo-bombed by a pacu fish!
Ester, our newest adoptee, made a quick appearance on the underwater webcam on March 6 early in the morning before roll call started.
Floyd also swam by our underwater webcam on March 8!
On March 10 we had a nice surprise: a newborn manatee calf at Blue Spring! Since the mother doesn’t have any visible scars, our research team has not been able to identify her.
Lily made a late season visit on March 20!

Blue Spring Rescues and Releases

We assisted with the release of four manatees at the park on February 11, then participated in the rescue of an orphaned calf on February 3, followed by the rescue of manatee “Churro” on February 4. Churro had been having difficulties adapting to her very first cold winter and had lost a lot of weight. She is being cared for at SeaWorld Orlando and the calf, named “Mandalore,” is being rehabilitated alongside four others at the Myakka facility run by the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature.

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