Photo © Nancy Sadusky, Save the Manatee Club

Manatee Reports From
Blue Spring State Park
by Wayne Hartley, Manatee Specialist
Save the Manatee Club


December 10, 2012
The temperature in the St. Johns River is up to 69° F, but even with the warm river temp, I still saw 21 manatees. Doc and Annie were in today. I filmed Doc again and a little more of Annie as well.

December 7, 2012
The river temp went up two degrees to 68° F overnight. Park staff counted 16 manatees, and I counted 32. However, I identified 34. How did that happen? Well, when I do the roll calls, the count ends at the spring boil, but any manatees in late are still ID'd! Crazy Nick and Squeaky were the only adoptees I saw today, but I shot a lot of film.

December 6, 2012
The St. Johns River remains at 66° F. The park staff saw 43 manatees, and I saw 78. I identified 53 manatees, and adoptees Nick, Lily, Robin, Squeaky, and Annie were all in the spring run today. Annie and company were directly under the underwater webcam!

December 5, 2012
The St. Johns River has now warmed up to 66° F. As the temperature goes up, the manatees go down. The park counted 59 manatees, and I counted 71. Of those 71, I identified 56 manatees. Annie made roll call this morning. Squeaky, Lily, and Nick were seen afterward, and I filmed them.

December 4, 2012
First, Georgia was in yesterday. She was late, and I overlooked her. Second, the juvenile manatee brought in Friday was not recorded as a boat kill. It had a torn abdomen, but it is not known why. The St. Johns River was up to 65° F today. The park staff counted 61 manatees. As I was out longer and going in circles, I counted 82. There was wind, but no clay today, so I was able to identify 70 manatees. Last year, some manatees that were in Jacksonville when the weather got too cold were brought to Blue Spring. One was a pregnant adult named Kathy, and she had a tag or satellite tracking device. After an initial freakout, she adjusted well to Blue Spring. However, she quickly lost the device and went off the air when she left for the summer. As the cold weather approached, an APB went out to manatee researchers to watch for a manatee wearing a belt but missing the device. Well, Kathy was in today, and she has a calf! That is enough for celebration, but there is more. Squeaky is in, and she came to the canoe!!! Part of the big deal is not only that she came back, but that I recognized her! Annie was also in. So, with the orphan calf mentioned yesterday, and with Kathy's calf, we now have at least 41 calves recorded for the season.

December 3, 2012
With the St. Johns River temp soaring to 64.5° F, we still saw over 100 manatees. The park staff counted 117. I counted 105 and identified 61. As I photographed, a calf with cold stress or something else around his flipper chased the other fat gray residents of the run, began to play in the clay, and destroyed the best day of visibility I've had. Still, I saw Robin and Annie. However, the calf I thought was Annie's is an orphan. Annie's calf is larger and very dirty. The orphan is nursing on multiple females and doing fine. Sadly, a juvenile I had designated "S70/12" was brought in dead on Friday, November 30th. It was an apparent boat kill, but we will have to await the necropsy to be sure.

November 29, 2012
Today I went out with a photographer from the Daytona Beach News-Journal, so my routine became identify manatees and film a little. I did ID Robin, Paddy Doyle, Phyllis, Merlin, and Annie. I tried to film Merlin, and hope I did good!

November 28, 2012
The St. Johns River was up to 63° F today. The park staff counted 110 manatees and I counted 149. We are up to 39 calves as another little one appeared today. I was able to identify 94 animals, including Robin, Lenny, and Annie. The park staff also saw Georgia. The running count for the season is 370 individuals seen this season, and the cold weather yet to come!

November 27, 2012
The river temp was 61.3° F today(16° C). My count was interrupted and obscured by clay and finally some wind. But the park staff counted 189 manatees and that sounds good. Despite the odds against me, I was able to identify 78 manatees. Among them were Lucille, Paddy Doyle, and Annie's calf. As in my last count, the manatees were moving down and out of the run, anticipating the coming warm weather.

November 20 - 23, 2012
The St. Johns River hit its’ lowest so far with a 61.5° F temp on Friday, November 23rd. The park staff counted 106 manatees and I counted 261! But I had an unfair advantage in the canoe and counting after the fog lifted. Nick is here! And Merlin has been here, too. Recently, Merlin stuck just his head into and out of a webcam clip that I was watching from November 11th. However, I waited to see him at roll call before I would officially call it a sighting. On Friday, I also saw Annie (Annie was near the river, her calf was near the boil), Lenny, Robin, Georgia, Deep Dent, Brutus, Phyllis, Lily, Doc, Paddy Doyle, and Floyd. Amber is in now, so I must look harder for Squeaky. Amber had two young ones with her, but the conditions were not good enough to get a good look. During the entire count, the manatees were streaming out of the run as the weather warmed.

We are up to 328 individuals for the season. We seem to have 38 calves with nine more possible when outstanding females arrive. The old record was 27. Zorba, last seen in 2008, was in on November 21st, which was a big deal for me. Phillip, Annie, Doc, and Whiskers were also in that day. Rocket was not in, but he was seen on November 20th in Welaka Spring by Dr. Katie Tripp of Save the Manatee Club and Monica Ross of Sea2Shore Alliance. I also assisted a documentary film maker from Italy that day. On November 20th, I ID'd 88 manatees, including Lucille, Annie, Phillip, Georgia, and Doc.

November 19, 2012
Today, the river temperature was 65.5° F. There was bad clay and bad wind, so it made identification difficult, but despite the conditions, the park counted 202 manatees and I got 176. Of those, I was able to ID 110 manatees. Among the new arrivals are Whiskers and Flash! Phyllis, Georgia, Phillip, and Annie were also in today. There are at least 294 individuals for the season so far.

November 16, 2012
The St. Johns River was back down to 66° F and the manatee counts up to the following: park staff - 83, Wayne - 79. Dependable Annie was in as was not so dependable Phillip. Then, on the return down run, Deep Dent showed up! I got him on video. I have now seen 284 individual manatees this season.

November 15, 2012
Today the river temperature was 68°. The park staff and I both counted 51 manatees. The only adoptee in today was Annie. I did not see her on the way down after the count, but I saw her calf with Brooke and Brooke's calf. I picked out two old timers and three unknowns using the webcam films from the days I did not get to the park.

November 13, 2012
Yesterday, the river temp was up to 64.5° F. The park count was 31 manatees, but mine was 83. There was a lot of clay clouds in the water, but it was not as bad as Friday. Floyd, Annie, and Paddy Doyle were in. The manatee named Eon may have twins! Today the river went up two degrees to 66° F. The park count was 74 manatees, and mine was 78. The calf count is now 39, with three them still in question. There were no adoptees in at all today, but Jessica, the one we wanted to capture for the bad flipper entanglement, was finally in. The season count is up to 258 manatees.

November 9, 2012
Today the St. Johns River was down to 62.5° F. Park staff counted 152 manatees, and I counted 101. I ID'd 71 manatees, among them Lucille, Brutus, and Floyd. The new faces for this season were Doc, Paddy Doyle, Phillip, and Margarito! That means 8 more adoptees to go. In non adoptee news: Jazz, a young manatee that was ID'd in 2009, has a calf. I guess that means Jazz is female! Jazz has terrible mutilations from a large prop wound just above her peduncle (the base of her tail). I have been refering to Annie's calf as a yearling. Annie has brought it in so often this past summer, I guess it just seems like a yearling. We are up to 33 calves with more to come I am sure!! We have 226 manatees ID'd for the season to this point.

November 8, 2012
At least 195 animals have been seen since October 28th! At least 31 of these are calves! The old record was 27 calves, and there are more females expected that could have calves! The St. Johns River was 64° F today. Park staff counted 84 manatees, and I counted 102. With the wind down a little, I took my time trying to ID manatees, and more came in as I did so. The fresh-faced adoptees today were Lily and Lucille for roll call, and then Lenny showed up in the swim area after the count was over. Also in today were Howie, Phyllis, Annie, and Robin. Robin was sound asleep in the middle of the run instead of doing his normal nonstop swimming up and down the run. Recorded previously, but not today, are Brutus, Georgia and Floyd. There are 10 adoptees in and 12 to go. However, there was no calf seen with Lily although she was very pregnant when she left last season. But I will check a couple more times as the manatees settle down. In non-adoptee news that pleased me, Arwen, who has been coming in since 2002, finally has a calf.

November 7, 2012
On Monday, November 5th, with a river temp of 64.5° F, the park staff counted 53 manatees, and I counted 44. Georgia and Annie with their yearlings were the only adoptees in. Now for today, November 7th. The river was 65° F and none of our adoptees made roll call. But good old Annie came in as I got off the spring run. The park staff counted 59 manatees, and in the wind and clay, I could only find 33.

November 2, 2012
On Friday the temp in the St. Johns River was 63°, and I did both manatee counts (for me and the park), so both were 100. Brutus and Georgia were back, and Phyllis was seen for the first time. Phyllis was alone, which is unusual, but probably restful for her. Phalcon, her daughter, has given her another grandbaby. Hola, whose sex I did not know last year, has a calf and enlarged nipples so is a female for sure. Sometimes difficult things become easy! Zuzu was in, and he was never still, running from me or chasing females. I have a lot of calves and mothers to sort out!

October 31, 2012
The river is down to 65° and the park staff counted 103 manatees today. Manatee counts for the last three days are Park-18,49,103; Me-17, 27, 93. This makes October 29th the start of the 2012 - 2013 season. Today I found Floyd near the diver entry, and as I was coming down from the boil after the count, Brutus passed me on the way up. Then I found Howie in the swim area napping. An animal named Swale has been in with rope and line on a tail scar, and Jessica still has her line and flipper problem, so the rescue folks from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are hoping to do some line removal soon.

October 30, 2012
Today Robin was in among my 27 manatees. The park staff counted 49 manatees earlier when the wind was calmer, and I ID'd 12 of them. The river temp was 66°F. I got nice film of a manatee I intend to name Chloe. She is also known as BS706. I also helped the park staff put out the "No Canoe or Rowboat" sign. The wind was hard in 30 mph gusts.

October 29, 2012
Yesterday I am sure I saw Georgia in the murk of clay in the run. Park Manager Bob Rundle says her calf is still with her, which would be common for Georgia. Gator was also seen by Bob. I saw Gator and Annie today. Annie had at least five young manatees trying to nurse on her, and I don't know which was hers. One that joined the group is a small weaner calf that was waiting in the boil when I came up from a dive on September 21st. I found out it had been in for a week turning over kayaks, grabbing inner tubes, and other anti-social behavior. I could really see the little lady's left flipper scar today, and I hope I filmed it. I was going to rename Camo, a large female from Miami, but I have never seen her before last season, and I may never see her again as she may choose to winter in another location. This little female youngster should stay around! I also saw a young male that I believe was S88/11 from last season. As of tomorrow, the spring run is closed to canoes and kayaks. Because of the cold weather and possible manatee visits, there is no swimming tomorrow and then day to day until November 15th.


Wayne Hartley is a Manatee Specialist for Save the Manatee Club. Before joining the Club, he was a Park Ranger and then a Park Service Specialist with the Florida Park Service. Wayne served for over three decades as Principal Investigator for manatee research conducted at Blue Spring State Park.

Read Wayne's reports from the 2011 - 2012 Manatee Season

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