Wayne Hartley takes "manatee roll call" at Blue Spring State Park, followed at right by a juvenile manatee. (Photo by Nancy Sadusky, SMC)
By Nancy Sadusky,
Online Communications Director,
Save the Manatee Club
In November, the weather started to cool down in Florida, and that meant the return of manatees to warm water sources throughout the state. It’s been a mild winter so far, with just a couple of short cold spells, and that’s good news for our favorite aquatic mammals. They need a break after the harsh winters of the last two years, which contributed in part to record-breaking mortality.
Manatees usually move into warm water refuge areas when water temperatures are below 70° F (21° C), and they gather near natural springs or warm water effluents of power plants. In spite of their size, manatees have relatively little body fat, and their metabolic rate is low compared to other marine mammals. These factors may account in part for their susceptibility to cold temperatures.
There are several warm water refuge areas for manatees in Florida. We checked in with Wayne Hartley, Manatee Specialist for Save the Manatee Club at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, Florida, and Kari Rood, a biologist with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. Here’s what they had to report:
See A Slideshow!
Click on the photo above or on the following link to see more images from this year's manatee season at Blue Spring and TECO>>
Blue Spring State Park
On most winter mornings, you’ll find Wayne Hartley out in a canoe slowly paddling the spring run at Blue Spring State Park. The park, located in Orange City, Florida, is centered around a natural spring that maintains a constant 72° F (22° C) temperature and is a designated refuge area for manatees traveling the St. Johns River system.
Wayne tracks the manatees at the park for research purposes, and he reports his findings to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Sirenia Project, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Save the Manatee Club. In early January, I met up with him at the park, where he reported that most of the adoptees in Save the Manatee Club’s Adopt-A-Manatee program had made at least one visit this season. “All of the adoptees are in but Troy,” said Wayne, “and he has not been seen for a while. I was worried about Howie, but he ended up coming in late on December 19th.”
According to Wayne, November 6th was the first day the manatees starting coming into Blue Spring, and 293 manatees is the high count of the season so far. This does not beat the record of the 2009 – 2010 season yet, which was 317, but Wayne has identified 360 different individual manatees so far this year.
As we take the research canoe down the spring run, we watch the manatees resting, which Wayne notes is the predominant activity on cool winter days. However, this makes it easier for him to identify them. “The warmer it is, the more cavorting and carrying on I see,” he laughs.
Watch Video!
Click on the arrow above to join Wayne and Nancy, as Wayne takes "manatee roll call" at Blue Spring State Park. See a closeup as a manatee approaches the canoe, a mother and juvenile pair, and more!
Wayne has observed 23 mother manatees with calves this year, which is always good news. “There are always little moms that come in and surprise me,” says Wayne. “Lucille has a calf this year, and so does Georgia — a little male. Lily and Dana are both pregnant. I was certain Phyllis didn’t have a calf, but I think she has adopted one. Amber, who gave birth at Blue Spring this summer, is also back with her little female calf. We had been worried as the season continued and Amber did not show. But she is back now, and both she and the calf are fine.”
Jessica is another female who came in with her yearling calf, but she has additional problems, and Wayne and the park staff are keeping an eye out for her. “Jess lost a left flipper to line entanglement, and now she has line on her right flipper,” said Wayne. “We hope to get a tag on her so she can be captured, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
Tampa Electric Company's Manatee Viewing Center
Over on the other side of the state, you’ll find manatees at Tampa Electric Company’s (TECO) warm water discharge canal when the water temperature gets cool in Tampa Bay. Researchers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) use photography as a means of documenting individual manatees when they gather at TECO’s Big Bend Power Plant near Apollo Beach, Florida.
Kari Rood, who heads up the Manatee Photo-Identification program at the FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, reported that FWC staff observed a minimum count of 37 manatees on their first visit of the season to TECO on November 8th. And that was just the beginning. The FWC’s minimum counts of manatees at TECO have ranged anywhere from a low of 33 manatees in late November to 258 manatees on a chilly day in mid-December.
Manatees rest in the warm water discharge canal at TECO's Big Bend Power Plant. (Photo courtesy Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
“When water temperatures drop, often in association with a cold front, manatees seek out warm water,” said Rood. “When or what exactly triggers a manatee to head for a warm water source most likely depends on the water temperature in its current location, the size of the animal, its distance from a warm water source, whether or not it currently has a calf, the size of the calf, and other variables.”
“Manatees frequenting warm water sources, such as the TECO Big Bend Power Plant, are generally resting either at the surface or at depth,” said Rood. “They are generally at the surface on sunny days with low winds. Cavorting and nursing are other activities we have observed at the warm water areas.” Rood noted that FWC staff have observed a number of calves this year but don’t yet know how those numbers compare to previous years. She also reported on the red-tide bloom that has been in Southwest Florida most of the winter: “Its effect on animals is certainly something we’ve been keeping a close eye on,” she said.
The good news for Save the Manatee Club members is that Tampa Bay adoptees Flicker, Elsie, and Vector have all been spotted this winter. More good news is that the Manatee Viewing Center at TECO recently extended their platform system, so there is an even larger area for visitors and researchers to view the manatees in the discharge canal.
A manatee mom and nursing juvenile enjoy TECO's warm water refuge. (Photo courtesy Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
Watch More Video!
Click on the arrow above to watch Wayne and Nancy get splashed by Royal the manatee!
Save the Manatee Club Members:
Look for more news on your adopted manatee in the upcoming March Manatee Zone membership newsletter.
