It is hard to believe that the last day of this great adventure has arrived. Today as we headed out my personal objective was to be the first one to spot a manatee. I had seen them daily, but I had never been the first to see them - I wanted to have the thrill of yelling out "noses at 3:00"! We headed out to City Island Grass Flats with me in the lookout tower. My added diligence paid off; after approximately 15 minutes I spotted the first group of manatees. It turned out to be a very good sighting. There were at least 7 animals in the group; a couple of them were "familiar faces". Raisin and her calf, as well as Victoria and her calf were among the group. I felt that I was becoming experience as I was able to recognize the animals by their distinctive scars. Below are pictures of Victoria and Raisin and her calf. If you look at previous days journals I am sure you too will be able to recognize these Sarasota Bay manatees.

Which is Victoria? Which is Raisin?

Today I would like to share with you some additional information which scientists must record during a manatee sighting. The must note the observer, the person taking the pictures. Usually it was Teresa, but today it was another staff biologist, Rachel Nostrum, who was taking pictures. The rolls of film were labeled in the following manner : RN0225:14. "RN" stands for the observer, Rachel Nostrum; "02" stands for the year 2002; "25" means it is the 25th roll of film which Rachel has taken this year; "14" is the number of the picture on the roll. Each time a picture is taken, all of this information is recorded. This may seem like a lot to write. Why do you think it is necessary to include so much detail? It is primarily so that when the film is developed and the slides are returned the staff biologists can cross reference the slides with the scar sheets completed in the field. Without this type of detailed record keeping it would be difficult to document what had been observed in the field. You must be very organized to be a research scientist!

Weather conditions are also recorded. Here are the categories - clear, partly cloudy, overcast, rain or haze. As you can imagine some types of weather are better than others for manatee viewing. In addition to weather, the observer must take other factors like wind, glare, ripples into consideration before rating the day as excellent, good, fair or poor. Today was rated "fair" even though it was warm and sunny. The wind (15-20 mph), waves and glare made it a great day for boating and sun bathing but not ideal for photographing manatees.

One additional item which is recorded for each sighting is the habitat. Here are the habitat classifications which are used. During our two weeks at Mote, we observed manatees in almost all of these habitats.

Today we observed a behavior which is quite common for manatees, but unfortunately often leads to injury. Two manatees at different times, followed in the boat's wake at a very near distance. As I told you previously, Merv's engine is surrounded by a protective cage, so it presented no danger to the manatees, but this is not always the case. In the pictures below you can see just how close the manatees came to our boat. One stayed with us for such a long time that we nicknamed him "Stalker". As you can see, manatee behaviors, as well as distinctive scar patterns often suggest names for the animals. Another manatee had extensive barnacles on his back - we began calling him "Barney". Once these animals are fully photographed, who knows, perhaps one of these names will be used!

Throughout these journals, I have mentioned a number of typical manatee behaviors, which we observed as we were photographing the animals. Sometimes the scientists spend a 24 hour period, watching a single animal and documenting what it is doing every 4 minutes for an entire day. In that way they come to know that manatees spend 8-10 hours a day feeding. Although we did not do this type of study, here is a list of typical manatee behaviors. I am happy to say that I had the opportunity to observe almost all of them first-hand. The starred behaviors are listed in the manual, but not often used according to the scientists with whom we worked.

After our sighting at CIGF we intended to move to another location, but Merv did not cooperate. After two weeks of work Merv needed a rest! The engine died, and despite Rachel's efforts, the boat could not be restarted. We turned on the trolling motor and headed for home at a very slow speed. Fortunately a local boater took pity on us, threw us a line, and towed us back to Mote. Below are some pictures of our "rescue". He was rewarded for his good deed with passes to the Mote Aquarium.

Our two week experience was almost at an end. We had one more task - clean the boat! Really, clean the boat! It was like "spring cleaning". We removed everything from the boat and cleaned every nook and cranny, including the storage areas. Below is some photographic evidence of our cleaning efforts. Hopefully the next team of volunteers will appreciate Merv's shiny appearance, inside and out!

We took Friday night off and did a little shopping and relaxing in St. Armand's Circle. If you have been to the Brick Market Place in Newport or Quincy Market Place, in Boston you have an idea what this central shopping area in Sarasota is like. Miss Plante and I picked up a few souvenirs and enjoyed a relaxing dinner at an outdoor cafe. It was an enjoyable end to an unforgettable adventure. We returned home and got to bed early - our flight home was at 5:50 am and we didn't want to miss our flight. I am looking forward to seeing you, talking to you, and developing some ways in which we can do our part to save these gentle giants of the sea.