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.
Above-Water Webcam at Blue Spring State Park
Underwater Webcam at Blue Spring State Park
Please Note: Manatee Season has started at Blue Spring State Park. At night, or when there are issues with the webcams, we will play highlights video of previously recorded webcam footage. 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 Sightings
December 2-3, 2021:
On Thursday, the river temp was 64.4° F (18° C). The river was warming and the manatee count was going down. We counted 239 manatees, and the park staff counted 241. Love it when it works out that way! The manatees, as I have noticed before, seem to have fine internal barometers that tell them of the changing weather. When it warms after a cold spell, they congregate near the river ready to go out and feed. Yesterday they were almost all in the bottom third of the run, and today they were in the bottom fifth. After one day of calm clear water on November 30th, we have gone back to the manatees swimming around stirring up the clay and silt! In a joint effort today with FWC, Save the Manatee Club, and Volusia County, an orphaned calf was rescued. When the FWC rescue boat arrived, the wind was up and it was hard to find and track the little calf. Cora suggested she go to the far bank and try to locate it. I canoed her over and I got out of the way. The calf appeared to be bothered by the canoe and would move away so that we would lose it in the rippled water. Cora was able to locate it and the FWC boat came up the run and dip netted the little lady. She was definitely underweight and with cold stress or some other skin condition. We will know more as her treatment progresses at SeaWorld. Save the Manatee Club adoptees Merlin, Howie, Lucille, Rocket, Annie, and Aqua were seen today.
On Friday, the river temperature on Friday was at 62.6° F (17° C). Cora counted 256 manatees, and the park counted 278, so it was pretty close. The adoptees in on Friday were Merlin, Aqua, Annie, and Rocket for roll call, and Howie showed up after the count was finished. Just like yesterday, most manatees were congregated near the river ready to go out with the warming weather to feed. The manatee we assisted releasing on Tuesday, Lawrence, has yet to make it in for roll call! But our partners from Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute who are monitoring Lawrence are telling us that he is coming in, which is good! He made a brief appearance yesterday before we assisted with the orphan calf rescue. Maybe he just doesn’t like to be counted for roll call!— Wayne Hartley, Manatee Specialist, and Cora Berchem, 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.
Click to View:
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).
- Investigate the genealogy of the Blue Spring manatees.
- Learn about our manatee research work.
- Discover 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 park has opened the gates to wild manatees, so you can expect to see them on the webcams now. The permanent resident manatees (Ariel and Betsy) as well as the manatees in rehabilitation (Keeks and Heinz) are in the paddock area of the park and not on the webcams. At night, or when there are issues with the webcams, we will play highlights video of previously recorded webcam footage.
Click to View:
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: brutus
He visits Blue Spring State Park in the winter.
He is one of Blue Spring’s largest manatees.
Learn more and see photos and video.
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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
