Manatee

On Wednesday of our beach trip, someone told us about this little inlet/lagoon where some of the manatee live, so we went out to see them. There were at least 4 of them swimming around the boats here.


As soon as we got back to our condo, we noticed a commotion going on in the water. Turns out that 9 manatee (8 males, 1 female) were swimming up and down the beach in about waste deep water.


The game warden quickly showed up to keep people away from the manatee...some people were following them and trying to touch them. They let people stay close and watch, just not get too close and touch.


After everyone settled down, I got out in the water to watch them swim by.


Here's how close they were to us:

Finally the males were able to tire out the female, where they beached to try and mate with her. By this point, four people from the local marine lab and the beach police showed up. They still let us stay close and take pictures.

The manatee stayed all day...here they are at sunset.