Jupiter, FL  September 9, 2012

It is big and dark and fear starts to set in.  Then it becomes clear it is a manatee swimming and coming up for air.  Half a manatee’s day is spent sleeping in the water, surfacing for air at intervals. Manatees can measure up to 13 feet long and weigh as much as 1,300 pounds.  They have paddle-like flippers with a herbivore appetite.  The name manatí comes from the pre-Columbian people of the Caribbean.  It means breast.  The last tally in Florida of the species is 5,000. 

For the most part, manatees do not have any natural predators in the wild.  Even though they share the same habitats as sharks and alligators, they do not compete for the same food source. Man is their number one predator–the commercial and recreational vessel.