News

By Shelby Theisen, Development Coordinator

Being from South Florida, the Keys were always just a short drive away. I remember looking out of the car window trying to see if I could spot manatees or alligators in the channels and bays alongside the single-lane road. On my most recent trip to the Florida Keys a few summers ago, I was with a friend who had never seen a manatee.

Based on my own experience of not seeing manatees all that often, I wasn’t too confident we would be so lucky. Regardless, we set out on kayaks through the beautiful mangrove forests. We glided across the shallow water, seeing baby sharks, turtles, and lots of birds, but no manatees. After turning a corner around a mangrove bed, we thought we spotted large, smooth rocks barely breaking the surface ahead of us. As we continued paddling, I realized we were approaching manatees—or rather, they were approaching us! We immediately took our paddles out of the water and let our kayaks drift wherever the wind decided to take us. I had never seen manatees so close before. As they slowly moved past us, we caught glimpses of their white scars and missing parts of their tails. It was a sad but important reminder of how we need to practice safe boating in all waterways. Even with my polarized sunglasses and being just a few feet away from them at this point, their large bodies blended in so well with the brownish water of the bay.

Since joining the team at Save the Manatee Club, I have learned about the form on our website that allows you to report sightings of healthy manatees. I wish I had known about it back then, but it’s never too late to learn about new resources and share them with others! With this trip in mind, I also decided to adopt Zelda! She’s been spotted all around South Florida, and most recently around the Florida Keys. She got her name from the scar on her back, which resembles the letter Z.

If you’re in an area where you frequently spot manatees, or plan to travel this summer to a known manatee habitat, visit our website to refresh your memory on proper manatee manners and to get links to resources such as the manatee sighting form.