Watch manatees on underwater and above-water webcams at Blue Spring State Park and Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.
Webcam videos available, too! Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Underwater Webcam at Blue Spring State Park
Above-Water Webcam at Blue Spring State Park
Please Note: Manatee Season is over at Blue Spring State Park. The above-water and underwater webcams are currently showing highlights videos. You can also scroll down the page to see past manatee videos from the web cams. Any people seen in the videos are researchers or other individuals with special permission.
Latest Manatee Update
April 6, 2021:
The cold front seems to be over and the river is warming up. It was 70.7° F (21.5° C) this morning, and Cora counted five manatees. Three of them were down by the river and none of them were adoptees.
The park opened today for the public to enjoy swimming and paddling again, so manatee season seems to pretty much have come to an end. Our webcams will be playing pre-recorded highlights from now on until the next manatee season starts in November! — Wayne Hartley, Manatee Specialist, and Cora Berchem, Director of Multimedia & Manatee Research Associate.
Read more manatee updates from this season at Blue Spring State Park by clicking the blue Get Manatee Updates box below and click the Webcam Videos box to see manatee video clips from this season.
Please call Blue Spring State Park before you visit to get the latest manatee count at the park: 386-775-3663.
Support for the Manatee Webcams at Blue Spring State Park was made possible by a donation to Save the Manatee Club as a memorial gift in honor of the late Mrs. Norma Norton, a Florida resident who cared deeply for manatees.
- Read Manatee Updates from this season as well as past seasons.
- Identify manatees in the Club’s adoption program using Wayne Hartley’s Scar Pattern Chart (pdf).
- See Wayne’s Scar Charts for all of the Blue Spring manatees (pdf).
- Learn about Blue Spring State Park and why it is vital habitat for manatees.
- Check out our Species Spotlight to learn about other living things that share the manatee’s habitat at Blue Spring (pdf).
Underwater Webcam at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park
Above-Water Webcam at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park
Please Note: The permanent resident manatees, Ariel and Betsy, are currently in a different area of the park as they are keeping Heinz (a manatee in rehabilitation) company. At night, or when there are issues with the webcams, we will play highlights video of previously recorded webcam footage.
At Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, visitors can see manatees both in the in-ground pool at the Manatee Care Center and beneath the surface of the spring bowl in the Underwater Observatory. Manatees can be seen in the entire spring above the water, too. Manatees are a subtropical species and cannot tolerate water temperatures below 68 degrees F. The park’s natural freshwater spring bowl remains a constant 72-degree temperature year-round, serving as vital habitat for manatees and various species of fish who enter from the river. Two captive manatees, who cannot be released into the wild, remain at the park year-round, enhancing the park’s daily manatee education programs. These manatees — Ariel and Betsy — are in Save the Manatee Club’s Adopt-A-Manatee® program.
Save the Manatee Club has a historic partnership with Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, dating to 1989 when the Club’s Adopt-A-Manatee program began, and is grateful to the park for this partnership and the wonderful care they give to the manatees. Save the Manatee Club has provided funding for a spring run gate at the park that allows wild manatees to swim into the main spring area, which acts as an important source of warmth in the winter. The Club has also funded heating support tanks, used to treat manatees with cold stress; veterinary care; and the park’s “Manatee Watch” pontoon boat, used for rescues
Meet A Manatee: UNA
A manatee who visits Blue Spring State Park.
She has been rescued several times for monofilament line entanglement.
Learn more and see photos and video.
Watch even more Manatee Videos
Blue Spring State Park, Park Manager Michael Watkins
Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Park Manager Tricia Fowler
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Guest Services, Inc. at Blue Spring State Park
