Still Desperately Seeking Manatees

Although I’ve been visiting South Florida nearly all my life, one animal I’ve yet to see there in the wild is the manatee. I’ve see signs along the Intercoastal waters warning boaters to reduce their speed in order to protect them. We’ve visited The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near the Space Center and the Turkey Creek Sanctuary in Palm Bay where they’ve often been sighted, but to no avail.

I’ve often wondered what makes these sea creatures even more elusive than mermaids. They are generally slow-moving, gentle creatures most closely related to the elephant and often called sea cows. They seek warm – no colder than 68 degrees Fahrenheit - brackish water and feed on water plants.

Thus, when we arrived in Tampa, Florida, I was delighted to find out that they have a Manatee Viewing Center run by TECO, Tampa Electric Company. www.tampaelectric.com/manatee. The heat generated by the electric plant heats the water around it to temperatures comfortable for manatees. 

Since these animals tend to migrate to warmer waters, they often congregate near the power plant when the rest of the water around Tampa Bay is too cold for them.

Eager to finally see manatees in a somewhat natural habitat, we headed to the Manatee Viewing Center which was established thirty years ago. They have built several boardwalks and trails out to the viewing areas as well as a nature center and they have videos about these gentle creatures. It is quite an impressive site.

With camera ready, we walked all the trails. I saw a ripple in the water. Could it have been the tail of a manatee? Alas, that was all I was able to see so we’ll never know. Apparently, with the warm winter that Tampa had been having, the manatees had no need to swim all the way to the power plant. As their brochure states, the best time to see them is when the temperature in Tampa Bay is about 68 degrees Fahrenheit. When we were there, the temperature in and around Tampa Bay was about 85.

Nevertheless, the Viewing Area was worth seeing. We were impressed to see the efforts made by TECO to utilize solar power to generate electricity as well as their efforts to protect manatees in Florida. We were able to see various birds and schools of fish near the power plant as well.

When we went to the Turkey Creek Sanctuary and to Merritt Island, Florida had been having a cool winter and the manatees hadn’t come back there yet. In Tampa, we were there when the waters were too hot. Hopefully, someday we’ll return to one of those sites when the water is just right. In the meantime, our next stop is the Cincinnati Zoo. They have manatees there and you’re guaranteed to see them all the time.