Start 2022 with a Manatee

If you explore the rivers and coastal areas of Florida, it’s fairly common to come across an aggregation of manatees. You can spot them at Manatee Cove Park in Merritt Island, or Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge in Titusville. They’ve been seen at DeSoto inSatellite Beach, Thousand Islands Conservation Area in Cocoa Beach, and Turkey Creek Sanctuary in Palm Bay. In fact, Brevard County Department of Natural Resources reports 29 sections of just the Indian River Lagoon where people can see manatees in the wild.

They radiate a soft playfulness as they slowly swim between peaceful springs and nibble on aquatic plants. Manatees have no prey or predators, and they mostly spend their time relaxing on coastal floors, growing algae on their backs. However, as placid as they may be, manatees are not often treated like the gentle creatures they are.

Based in Maitland Florida, Save the Manatee Club began planting its roots in 1989 with the assistance of former Florida governor Bob Graham and singersongwriter Jimmy Buffett. The organization was established to alleviate manatee abuse. Manatees face wide-scale treachery due to human harassment and boat collision.

According to a spokesperson for the organization, “More than 41% of manatee deaths were caused by human activity, and nearly 34% due to watercraft.”

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service declared manatees close to endangered, and if no change is made, the manatee could face extinction. With this in mind, Save the Manatee Club actively educates the local community how to safely interact with manatees. They offer volunteer- and specialisttaught online seminars, and they supply information on their website and brochures. The organization organizes outreach programs to get people involved and encourage them to reflect on their own actions in an effort to minimize the deep-rooted boating culture that brings harm to the manatees.

Save the Manatee Club also has a wide array of assistance from volunteers from across the globe. People are steadily giving donations and hosting fundraisers such as the Save the Manatee 5K, and the Adopt A Manatee Program, where, starting at $25, people are able to symbolically adopt a manatee complete with certificate, location, and biography. The money goes directly to rehabilitation and rescue manatees. Assistance can also be given directly through the website, where you can sign petitions to restore the Great Florida Riverway or the Neverglades Declaration.

Outside of community outreach, Save the Manatee Club partners with animal rehabilitation facilities and exhibitions, such as the Manatee Critical Care Center and Jacksonville Zoo, to ensure the safety of the manatees. Although the organization doesn’t work with the manatees directly, they provide a great deal of funding for these programs, and they link directly to Florida government representatives. Save the Manatee Club also sponsors research in West Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. The organization is growing each day and they need your help to continue keeping the manatees alive and well!

Save the Manatees: Adopt a New Friend

By Keri Inge-Marshall

Photos by Cora Berchem and Wayne Hartley

bUneke M A G A Z I N E .org 25Learn more at savethemanatee.org/ ,