On View at the Manatee Viewing Center

—– by Diane White

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Manatees are Florida’s gentle giants and when Florida’s waterways drop below 68 degrees, you will find a thick carpet of manatees at TECO’s Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach, Florida. When the waters are very cold, school children, tourist and a few locals swarm around the viewing area – bunched up like the manatees – watching the main attraction.

Recently on a chilly morning outing to the Manatee Viewing Center, the OLLI-USF Outdoors group joined the crowd. We enjoyed a private talk about manatees where we had all our questions answered before taking our turn along the viewing pier – called the Tidal Walk – to view the manatees.

Why are manatees so special? They aren’t very cuddly, but they are so cute!

The native Florida manatee can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh up to 1,200 pounds. Manatees move slowly through inland and coastal waterways at a rate of about five miles per hour. At times, they can travel at speeds close to 15 miles per hour but only in short bursts.

Like many Floridia natives, manatees don’t like the cold. To stay warm, they keep to waters that are at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything colder than that and manatees risk dying due to cold stress. Each day, manatees eat around 120 pounds of food or up to approximately 10% of their body weight. Manatees’ favorite foods are different types of vegetation like sea grasses and mangrove leaves.

Along the Tidal Walk, the warm waters near the plant attract a variety of marine life – easily visible in the shallow water like the spotted eagle rays and schools of blacktip shark and snook.

As the OLLI Outdoors group learned, there is another experience at the center that is less well-known than manatee viewing, but just as fun and educational. The Coastal Habitat Nature Trail is an .8-mile walk to an observation tower which winds your way through the estuary of Tampa Bay.

Dominating the ecosystem along the nature trail is the mangrove forest which is home to other true Florida native – the red, black and white mangrove. The mangrove family also include the lesser-known and beautiful Green Buttonwood. This buttonwood is considered the 4th type of mangrove and thrives in coastal conditions and can take saltwater inundation and salty soils.

Mangroves are protected, like our Florida manatees which are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act and under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Our tour concludes – I hope you have enjoyed seeing a few of the many natural wonders on view at the Manatee Viewing Center.

If you visit:
Manatee Viewing Center
Address: 6990 Dickman Road, Apollo Beach, Florida 33572
Website: https://www.tampaelectric.com/company/mvc/

Diane White, MA, PMP, earned advanced degrees in information technologies from George Washington University and education from USF.  She has been managing projects for over 25 years in the information technology and telecommunications industries.  She joined OLLI-USF in 2008 and has taken OLLI courses in art, art appreciation, architecture, music, great books, science, nature, literature, and leadership.  She is a member of OLI’s Tech Squad, teaches a variety of technology courses, an OLLI Roll of Honor instructor and is OLLI Connects’ technology contributor and consultant. Diane is co-leader of the USF-OLLI Outdoors SIG and is a certified Florida Master Naturalist, UF-ISFS.