Manatees are large slow-moving marine mammals of the Order Sirenia. The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee(Trichechus manatus ).
Manatee or manati?
The word "manatee" comes from the Spanish word manati, although the true origination may date from the native Puerto Rican Taino people whose translation means ma (big) nati (chest).
In December 2007, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) decided not to downlist the Florida Manatee from "endangered" to "threatened" status. Please see our frequently asked questions page or the FWC news release for more information.
(Photo by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
Broward County manatee count:
Conducting aerial surveys is one of the most successful ways to determine where manatees are in Broward. Periodic helicopter flights allow for the greatest flexibility in speed and altitude to survey all tidally influenced waterways between Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Some recent surveys include the following results from the past few months:
12/26/07 - 66 manatees
01/08/08 - 246 manatees
01/18/08 - 218 manatees
01/23/08 - 323 manatees
01/30/08 - 455 manatees
02/06/08 - 61 manatees*
02/15/08 - 80 manatees
02/20/08 - 50 manatees
02/29/08 - 28 manatees
03/05/08 - 12 manatees
03/13/08 - 19 manatees
03/20/08 - 8 manatees
03/27/08 - 10 manatees
04/24/08 - 14 manatees
*Due to heavy airtraffic it was not possible to adequately survey the cooling lakes west of the FLL airport (essential manatee habitat) and western portion of the Dania Cutoff Canal.
