Welcome to the Manatee Project

Our morning today began at 6:30 am, with a stroll on the beach to monitor sea turtle nests. We did not see any today, which was to be expected, since May 1st marks the initial day of their nesting season. We were looking for long marks on the beach, almost like tire tracks leading up from the water to a mound of sand. The mother sea turtle drags herself from the water up to the beach on her belly. She uses her back legs to dig a hole, lays her eggs, and then covers them with a great deal of sand. It is important to locate and protect these nests, and its certainly not a bad way to begin your day with a walk along the beach at sunrise.

While searching for the nests I noticed some rather large and itchy insect bites on my legs. Teresa explained that they were bites from "noseeums". These insects are found in the sand here in Florida and are too small to be seen by the naked eye... hence the name... no.. see... ums'. As I try not to scratch my legs while typing to you, I can certainly see why Florida residents love the geckos that run around everywhere. These lizards keep the insect population down and are an important part of the ecosystem. This is one of the many geckos we have seen in the past few days.

We had wonderful luck on the boat today! The first location which was just north of Mote Marine, called Bowlee Creek, did not yield any manatee sightings. We spent time observing there from about 10:00 to 12:00. Our second location, however, called Buttonwood Harbor produced about 12 to 15 manatees. (At least two of which were calves.) We observed at this location from 13:30 to about 15:30. We must record in military time on our data sheets. During what time period were we in Buttonwood Harbor?

The manatees were grazing in a grass bed, so we turned off the boat and used the trolling motor to glide up next to them. We were actually stopped at one point early on, when a resting manatee floated right into the front of the boat! This apparently startled him and he slapped his enormous fluke on the water. The fluke slapping in turn startled the other 10 or so manatees who all dispersed at a rapid pace. They were so panicked and disoriented that some even went under the boat. I was up in the tower at the time, and I can tell you that I thought we might tip over. Manatees are so strong, and they rocked our 19 foot boat quite hard by bumping it from underneath on their way by. No manatees were hurt according to Teresa, since they initiated the contact with the boat and moved away quickly. To prevent this from happening again we all had to be extremely keen observers, and if we noted a resting manatee floating towards us we had to stomp on the bottom of the boat. The noise would wake the manatee, so that he would not be startled out of his sleep by banging into a large unknown object. They are not afraid of the boat at all, in fact many swam next to, around and under during the two hour observation.

During all of this manatee activity at Buttonwood Harbor, I worked up in the tower with Teresa as the data recorder. While she took pictures, I had to record data on the sheet above. I documented scar markings as you and I have done in class before. I also had to provide an ID number for each manatee, which was based upon the date and the order in which we photographed them. For example the first manatee of the day was 501A. 5 was for the month of the year, 01 was the day, and A because he was the first animal documented. The fourth manatee of the day was 501D. I had to circle whether the manatee was an adult, calf, or sub-adult (which is not a calf, but not yet a full grown manatee). This sheet also helped to keep track of which pictures on the role were of each animal, so as Teresa shot, I indicated this on the data sheet as well. It was hot and humid up in that tower with a temperature of 84 degrees and the sun beating down on us. I had to really focus and concentrate for two hours straight in order to record all data correctly. One of the other members of our team controlled the trolling motor, which kept us close to the manatees without scaring them away. I look forward to working with this equipment tomorrow!

The trolling motor gets its power from two batteries that are hooked together with special wires in a joint circuit. As you can see above, one of my jobs before we went out on the water today was to hook up those batteries according to specific requirements. I was thrilled to do this correctly on the first try, and the trolling motor turned out to be an essential part of today's field study.

As you can see in the pictures below, being a research scientist is not very glamorous. When we return to Mote Marine each day, we must tie the boat down to the docks, remove all equipment, store the batteries, hose and scrub both the inside and outside of the boat, and take all of our film and data sheets to the lab for analysis. It is there in the lab that we can use MIPS (Manatee Individual Photo-Identification System). This allows us to see if any of the manatees we saw today are already in the database. We search for them based upon special scar codes. If that manatee is not in the database then we give him or her a temporary number. We must then find that manatee and continue to photograph him or her. A manatee cannot be entered into the database until we have a clear picture of its right and left side, head and fluke. I will tell you from one day out on the water that the manatees do not pose, and it is rare to get a good shot of any part of them at all. Manatee photo identification is certainly hard work, but an enjoyable experience that produces incredibly important information necessary to save this species.

Congratulations to Josh, Tom, Matt, Mike and Felicia for their hard work today. It is encouraging to hear that all of you are learning a great deal about manatees while I am here working with them. To answer some of your interesting questions:

1. Female manatees can certainly die during childbirth, although we have no documented cases of that for sure. There have been mothers and fetuses found dead in the water at times, and scientists can logically assume that to be the cause of death. No one has ever documented this happening however.

2. We did use the refractometer on the boat today. The water was 40 parts per thousand, which is about average salinity for a bay here in Sarasota. When I return, we can compare this with the salinity of a sample from Rhode Island. I will let you know if we get any interesting salinity results in other locations.

3. The dead manatee was hauled in by another boat, we just heard about it as we were heading out yesterday. Again, I am happy to report that we saw only healthy manatees so far!

4. If we saw a calf that seemed to be very alone we would follow it for some time to be sure that mom wasn't just a short distance away and we could not see her. Eventually, if it was determined without a doubt that the calf was alone, we would call in another boat to help us rescue the orphan and bring her to Mote for rehabilitation. If the calf was alone for some time it may be dehydrated or weak from not eating properly. If the center could find an older animal for it to bond with (which can occur sometimes), the calf may be released at a later date.

5. I did not have any ice cream yet Katie. Thanks for asking. I plan to do so tonight though, just as soon as I finish typing to you.

I can't wait to see all of you on Friday morning!