The West Indian manatee is a large, aquatic mammal. Due to their eating habits, manatees are nicknamed “sea cows” because they eat seagrasses and other aquatic plants.

Manatees are protected under the Endangered Species Act and under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Today, the range-wide population is estimated to be at least 13,000 manatees, with more than 6,500 in the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico. When aerial surveys began in 1991, there were an estimated 1,267 manatees in Florida. Today there are more than 6,300 in Florida, representing a significant increase over the past 25 years.

Manatees are catalogued according to the presence and location of scar patterns are their body. With your help we can use this information to identify individual manatees.