Alabama Manatees "Join The Club"
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| Zewie is a male manatee weighing in at 1,365 pounds, and he is 10 feet long. He has migrated from Alabama to Crystal River, Florida each winter since 2009. (Photo courtesy Dauphin Island Sea Lab's Manatee Sighting Network) |
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In June, Save the Manatee Club added two new manatees to the Adopt-A-Manatee program. The most recent adoptees are named Bama and Zewie, and they have been sighted in Alabama waterways each year since 2009. The manatees are being tracked by Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s (DISL) Manatee Sighting Network in Alabama.
Bama is a female manatee, and she made history on September 4, 2009, when she became the first manatee ever captured and tagged in Alabama waters. Bama quickly became a local attraction. In the spring, she has been known to feed near the USS Alabama battleship, located at Battleship Memorial Park on Mobile Bay. Summer sightings of Bama typically include Delvan Bay in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and Dog River, a tributary of Mobile Bay. In the winter, Bama has returned to warm waters near Crystal River, Florida. Characterized as shy and timid, she is recognizable by a propeller scar located on the left side of her back. Bama is nine feet long and weighs approximately 1,020 pounds.
Zewie is a male manatee weighing in at 1,365 pounds, and he is 10 feet long. We know he is at least 24 years old because he was first documented in 1987 by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Sirenia Project (USGS) as a dependent calf in Crystal River, Florida. From 1987 through 2009, Zewie was only sighted at Crystal River. But in June 2009, he was spotted in a mating herd in Alabama’s Mobile-Tenesaw Delta. Gregarious and inquisitive, Zewie is usually observed in the company of other manatees and has been observed in Chacaloochee Bay in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and in Fish and Dog Rivers of Mobile Bay. He is identified by a distinctive scar in the middle of his tail. On August 11, 2010, Zewie became the fourth manatee captured and tagged in Alabama.
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| DISL researchers identify Bama (above and right) by the propeller scars on her back, which were the result of a boat hit. (Photo courtesy of DISL's Manatee Sighting Network) |
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A somewhat migratory species, manatees are concentrated primarily in Florida in the winter, usually November through March. But in the summer months, they are much more widely distributed and sightings in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina are relatively common. It was in 2007 that DISL started their Manatee Sighting Network, led by Senior Marine Scientist Ruth Carmichael, to track manatees in Mobile Bay and the surrounding waters. During the Gulf oil spill, Carmichael and DISL staff kept an eye out for manatees traveling through the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak, and they continue to monitor the impact of the spill on manatees and their food sources.
“Fortunately, we have not observed serious immediate impacts of the oil spill on local manatees, but we feel extremely fortunate that we started our monitoring program three years before the event,“ stated Carmichael. “Our data on the timing and movement patterns of manatees from Mississippi through western Florida provides important baseline information that will allow us to continue to assess the effects of the oil spill and any other environmental changes on manatees and their habitat in the northern Gulf of Mexico.”
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Zewie has a distinctive white scar on his tail. In this photo, you can also see the tracking device he wears, (Photo courtesy Dauphin Island Sea Lab's Manatee Sighting Network)
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The partnership between Save the Manatee Club and DISL came about through the efforts of Carmichael and Katie Tripp, Director of Science and Conservation for the Club. "DISL has a growing manatee tagging and stranding program, and they are interested in expanding manatee education activities,” says Tripp. “Ruth knew about our adoption program, and she contacted me to discuss ways we might work together to help manatees in Alabama."
A portion of the proceeds from adoptions of Bama and Zewie will be used to help fund DISL’s stranding response and outreach efforts in Alabama. Save the Manatee Club’s public awareness waterway signs and boat decals are also being adapted for distribution in Alabama. Each person who adopts Bama or Zewie will receive a boat decal with DISL’s stranding number to report manatee sightings or injuries in Alabama as well as a brochure with more information on DISL’s Manatee Sighting Network. These materials will be included in addition to the adoption certificate and biography that are provided for all of SMC’s adoptees. For more information about adopting Bama or Zewie, go to Save the Manatee Club’s Adopt-A-Manatee page on the Alabama Program or call 1-800-432-JOIN (5646).
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| Gregarious and inquisitive, Zewie is usually observed in the company of other manatees and has been observed in Chacaloochee Bay and the Mobile-Tensaw Delta in Alabama. (Photo courtesy Dauphin Island Sea Lab's Manatee Sighting Network) |
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