For Immediate Release: May 1, 2003
(Note to media organizations: If you are interested in featuring this story, a high-resolution jpeg (300 dpi) image of a manatee can be e-mailed upon request.)


This Mother’s Day, add a manatee to your family! Show your mom how much you care by adopting a manatee in her name. You can't take the manatee home, but Save the Manatee Club (SMC) will send a photo and biography of the newest addition to the family. An adoption certificate, membership handbook, and newsletter subscription are also included. And from May 1-May 31, each new member who joins the Adopt-A-Manatee program online at $35 or more will receive a free collector’s plate featuring "Manatees" by international marine artist Wyland. Approximately 8" in diameter, each plate is numbered and produced in limited quantity. Manatees are animals your mom won’t have to feed, walk, or clean up after -- and they don’t talk back. Your mom will have the fun without all the responsibility, and your contribution will go toward efforts to help protect endangered manatees and their habitat.

It’s hard to resist the charm of manatees. Gentle and slow moving, they can be found in the waterways of southeastern United States--primarily in Florida. Today, there are only about 3,000 manatees left. They are an endangered species, and they need our help. Each year, many manatees are killed by watercraft collisions. They are crushed in floodgates and canal locks, and they become entangled in fishing gear. The greatest long-term threat to manatees, however, is loss of habitat.

Nineteen manatees that regularly winter at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, FL, have been chosen for one of SMC's three Adopt-A-Manatee programs. Adoptees at Blue Spring include manatee moms such as Phyllis, Lily, and Lucille. In the spring of 1991, Phyllis gave birth to twins, a rare occurrence for manatees. She has had several calves since that time. Lily is also the mother of several calves and a regular park visitor. She has returned each year since 1974, and she came in with a new calf this year! Lucille was born in 1980, and she also regularly winters at Blue Spring. She had her first calf at an early age and became a grandmother in 1993.

SMC's other adoption program is at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park in Homosassa, FL. The park is a rehabilitation facility for manatees that are recovering from injuries before being released back into the wild. Five female manatees that cannot be released into the wild for life-threatening reasons currently call the park their home. They include Amanda, who suffered injuries from a watercraft collision, and her daughters Ariel and Betsy. Rosie is another park resident. She is a gentle manatee who likes to "baby-sit" the younger manatees in rehabilitation. Lorelei also resides at the park. She is known for swimming “laps” from one end of the spring to the other!

Five manatees frequently seen in the Tampa Bay area and along the west coast of Florida are also in SMC’s Adopt-A-Manatee program. Most of these manatees spend all or part of the year in Tampa Bay. The female manatees in the program include Elsie, Flicker, and Ginger. Unfortunately, Elsie is easily identified by researchers because her tail is badly mutilated from an encounter with a boat propeller. Flicker’s name comes from her many small propeller scars that resemble flickering flames. Ginger frequents the west coast of Florida, south of Tampa Bay, and she has been seen every summer since 1994 in the Marco Island area.

Save the Manatee Club is a national, nonprofit organization that was started in 1981 by U.S. Senator Bob Graham and singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett. The Club’s mission is to protect endangered manatees and their habitat. Contributions to the Adopt-A-Manatee program are tax deductible and help to support SMC’s manatee education and public awareness projects. SMC also funds manatee rescue, rehabilitation, and research efforts in the U.S. and the Wider Caribbean and helps to protect manatees and their habitat through advocacy and legal action.

Get more information about manatees or the Adopt-A-Manatee program.