Another Quiet Quarter for Our Coastal Adoptees

Coastal Adoption Update

By Cora Berchem, Director of Multimedia and Manatee Research Associate

It has been a very quiet summer and early fall, and unfortunately, none of our coastal adoptees—on either the east or west coast—have been spotted.

Spotting adoptees during the summer is always more challenging, as they don’t congregate in large aggregations but instead spread out into rivers, estuaries, and shallow coastal areas. Since they are not gathered in one place, researchers typically do not go out to specific locations for photo-ID purposes.

Identifying manatees, including our adoptees, during the non-winter months is more opportunistic. This usually happens when a manatee is photographed in a mating herd or when a local resident sends in photos. We hope to share more updates in the next newsletter in March, as manatees are now starting to make their way back to their warm-water sites.