Save the Manatee Club supports researchers and communities in many places worldwide. Donations through our International Rescue Fund and Amazon Wish List provide funding and support for:

Paul Walker with small manatee calf in Belize. Supporting facilities like Belize is an important part of our worldwide mission to protect manatees.
Paul Walker, Co-Director of Wildtracks Rehabilitation Center in Belize, places a rescued manatee calf into the rehabilitation pool.

Wider Caribbean

  • Wildtracks, the only manatee rehabilitation facility in Belize caring for sick and orphaned manatees. Donations and in-kind gifts from Club supporters provide Esbilac milk replacement formula, probiotics and vitamins, thermometers, GPS tracking gear, cameras and binoculars for research, brushes, scales, pumps, a pressure washer, solar power equipment, transportation and tracking equipment, staffing, and much more.
  • El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Mexico for health assessment and tracking equipment. Funding was also provided to Fundación Internacional para la Naturaleza y la Sustentabilidad (FINS) in Mexico for formula for an orphaned manatee calf, a release in Quintana Roo, and local education initiatives.
  • Education and outreach materials for partners in Cuba and Haiti to prevent manatee poaching by local villagers.
  • Supplies and resources for manatee monitoring program in the Bahamas.
  • Health assessments for manatees in Jamaica, as well as educational items for local schoolchildren.
A manatee calf rescued in Nigeria is bottle fed.
An African manatee calf rescued in Nigeria is bottle fed.

Africa

  • Items for manatee research, as well as formula, medicine, and funds for the care of orphaned manatee calves in West Africa.
  • The African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization (AMMCO) based in Cameroon through funding outreach and education efforts, providing grants for genetic research and alternative livelihood projects, and also helping to mitigate the effects of invasive plant species in Lake Ossa in Cameroon.
  • Sponsoring speakers for the African Manatee Symposium in Senegal. In addition, Save the Manatee Club contributed funds to help rescue several African manatees trapped behind a dam in Senegal and provided education materials to school children.
  • Alternative livelihood opportunities and education and outreach materials for communities in Nigeria where manatees are still traditionally hunted for sustenance. Save the Manatee Club also gave a grant to the African Aquatic Conservation Fund for a manatee threat assessments study in Nigeria. In January 2022, we supported the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Research in the successful, first-time ever effort by two government agencies to rescue and release an illegally captured African manatee.
    Doing manatee surveys in Senegal.
    Lucy Keith-Diagne, Executive Director of the African Aquatic Conservation Fund, prepares to release a drone, which will assist in surveys of African manatees in Senegal.

South America

  • The Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute for the Sirenians in the Amazon Estuary Research and Conservation Network (SEA). SEA aims to better understand the distribution and stranding events of manatees in the Brazilian Amazon by promoting collaboration between research institutions and other stakeholders, as well as to improve wildlife rescue and management capabilities in the region. Save the Manatee Club funding will also support manatee rehabilitation, professional capacity building, environmental awareness education, and genetic studies.
  • The rescue, relocation, and care of several manatees in Colombia in partnership with the Omacha Foundation to protect them from poaching.
  • Health assessments for manatees in Venezuela.
  • An orphaned manatee calf rescue in Peru as well as funding to the University of Quintana Roo (Mexico) to support the Third Latin American Manatee Symposium held in Lima, Peru.
A rescued manatee calf in Brazil is assessed by SEA team members.
A rescued Amazonian manatee calf in Brazil is assessed by Sirenians in the Amazon Estuary Research and Conservation Network (SEA) team members.

Want to support projects like these? Click below to donate directly to our International Rescue Fund.