Watch manatees on underwater and above-water webcams at Blue Spring State Park and Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.
Webcam highlights available, too! Scroll down to view.
Manatee Season has started at Blue Spring State Park and the above-water webcam is currently live. At night, or when there are issues with the webcams, we will play highlights of previously recorded webcam footage. You can also scroll down the page to see past manatee videos from the webcams. Any people seen in the videos are researchers or other individuals with special permission.
Above-Water Webcam at Blue Spring State Park
Underwater Webcam at Blue Spring State Park
Latest Manatee Sightings
Friday, 25 November 2022
The river temp was 69.8°F (21°C). I counted 12 manatees, no Save the Manatee Club adoptees. With so few here to write about I’ll do a little life history. After all it is the research we are doing. Corinn and yearling made the count today. They were late for Cora’s roll call yesterday. I believe that was their first visit this season. Corinn was ID’d as a yearling in 2015. She was U9/15 ( the ninth unknown of the 2015-16 season) until she was named in a Save the Manatee Club naming contest. Most female manatees have their first calf at five or six so Corinn was a little late. It was good to see her. I’ve always had a soft spot for Corinn and also several hundred other manatees!
Read more manatee updates from this season at Blue Spring State Park and click the Webcam Videos box to see manatee video clips from the webcams.
Please call Blue Spring State Park before you visit to get the latest manatee count at the park: 386-775-3663.
Click to Expand:
- 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).
Watch even more Manatee Videos
The park has opened the gates to wild manatees, so you can expect to see them on the webcams now. Permanent residents Ariel and Betsy, along with Heinz, Shantay, and Guppy, who are undergoing rehabilitation, are in the paddock area of the park and not on the webcams. At night, or when there are issues with the cameras, we will play highlights of previously recorded webcam footage.
Underwater Webcam at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park
Above-Water Webcam at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park
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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 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.
Special Thanks To Our Partners
Blue Spring State Park, Park Manager Dustin Allen
Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Park Manager Zachary Phifer
Guest Services, Inc. at Blue Spring State Park
