Today is the last Wednesday of March and that means one thing – it’s Manatee Appreciation Day! What is it that makes manatees so captivating? Is it the stories mariners used to tell about mistaking ...

A manatee glides along the spring run to the St. Johns River at Blue Springs State Park. Marjie Lambert mlambert@miamiherald.com Slightly more manatees died this year in Florida than in previous years ...

Lee County leads Florida in manatee deaths from boat strikes in 2025, with 14 recorded incidents. Statewide, manatee deaths from boat collisions are above the five-year average, totaling 97 for the ...

Florida's manatees faced near-record deaths for young sea cows in 2025, but also saw seagrass recovery, new legal protections, and scientific breakthroughs offering hope for the future.

For Florida’s manatee population and manatee conservationists around the world, 2025 was a banner year. ZooTampa’s David A. Straw, Jr. Manatee Critical Care Center released 26 rehabilitated wild ...

Christopher Columbus gets credit for the first written record of manatees in North America, ones he saw near the Dominican Republic in 1492. West Indian manatees, also called Florida manatees, are ...

The FWC is investigating a spike in manatee deaths over the past week. 25 manatees were found dead in Lee County during that time. So far in 2026, there have been 85 manatee deaths across Florida, ...

The wild-born West Indian manatee has lived in human care since 1957 and far outlived the species’ typical 30–40 year lifespan ...

Slightly more manatees died this year in Florida than in previous years, although the number was not as high as that in 2021 and 2022, when a record die-off prompted widespread alarm. A total of 587 ...