Perfect Beginning to the new year, Manatees

What a perfect beginning to the New Year. A mother and her baby were in the Marina where we are staying. I ran to where there were, a floating dock just inches from the water calling out to Patty from SV Nautical Dreamer. She brought her camera ( I knew if I went form mine they would hi tail it out of there) and we both watched as mother and child swam under the dock and back up again.  It looked like something delicious was growing under the dock; neither animal was interested in water. We spent about 15 minutes watching and trying to get good pictures.

Lots of snouts just out of the water, but wow to see them swimming so close was great

Here are some Manatee facts for fun.

Behavior: Manatees are gentle and slow-moving animals. Most of their time is spent eating, resting, and traveling. Manatee are mostly herbivorous, however small fish and invertebrates can sometimes be ingested along with a manatee’s normal vegetation diet. They eat a large variety of submerged, emergent, and floating plants and can consume 10-15% of their body weight in vegetation daily. Because they are mammals, they must surface to breathe air. They may rest submerged at the bottom or just below the surface of the water, coming up to breathe on an average of every three to five minutes. When manatees are using a great deal of energy, they may surface to breathe as often as every 30 seconds. When resting, manatees have been known to stay submerged for up to 20 minutes. Manatees can swim up to 20 miles per hour in short bursts, but they usually only swim about three to five miles per hour.

In October of 1989, Florida's Governor and Cabinet directed the state’s wildlife agency to work with 13 "key" manatee counties in Florida to reduce injuries and deaths.  Over the years, these 13 county governments have worked with the state to develop site-specific boat speed zones to reduce the likelihood of watercraft collisions and to implement comprehensive manatee protection plans (MPP) for each county. 

mom

Mom's tail

baby

you can see both mom and baby