A Manatee Visits Banana Bay

Occasionally a manatee wanders into our marina to eat vegetation from the bottoms of the boats and beg for fresh water. Manatees love fresh water. We're not supposed to give them water because they learn to swim near the docks and that puts them at risk of being hit by a propeller.

Manatees live about 60 years but extreme cold Florida weather such as the 2010 cold snap that caused the death of 244 in January then 35 more in December can shorten their lives and keep them on the endangered list. They have no enemies except boat props.

They are mammals and therefore need to surface every 20 minutes or less to breathe.

They move quite slowly but are able to swim at 20 mph for short bursts.