Manatee Press

Useful for residents and visitors alike, Barbados Travel Companion, our new travel app to Barbados, supplies comprehensive information along with pictures, maps and links to hundreds of videos and relevant websites.

There is an Android version and an iTunes version.

St. John Visitors:

Please check out Explore St. John, our new travel app to St. John, which supplies comprehensive information (useful for residents and visitors alike) along with pictures, maps and links to hundreds of videos and relevant websites.

iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch version

Android version

There is an Android version and an iTunes version.

St. John Visitors:

iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch version

Android version

Popularly known as the "sea cow," the manatee (manatā) once ranged in habitat from Florida to Brazil. Europeans swiftly exterminated the creatures in the southern Caribbean. The last sighting in Trinidad was in 1910 when one was harpooned. Manateees move along the ocean floor (at a maximum pace of six mph) searching for food, surfacing every four or five minutes to breathe. Surprisingly, as the manatee's nearest living relative is the elephant, the creature was thought to be the model for the legend of the mermaid „ perhaps because of the mother's habit of sheltering her offspring with her flipper as the infant feeds. Weighing between 400 and 1,300 lbs., the pudgy creature is covered with finely wrinkled grey or brown skin decorated with barnacles and algae; it may reach 12 ft. in length. Although to you they might appear ugly with their small eyes, thick lips, bristly muzzles, and wrinkled necks, they are affectionate with one another, kissing and sometimes swimming flipper-to-flipper. Dwelling in lagoons and in brackish water, manatees may eat as much as 100 lbs. of aquatic vegetables per day. Strictly vegetarian, their only enemy is man, who has hunted them for their hide, oil, and meat. Once ranging from South America up to North Carolina, their numbers have dwindled dramatically. In other localities, their tough hides were used in machine belting and in high pressure hoses. In Central America, Belizeans have widely and incorrectly believed that manatee flesh holds special properties and comes in a variety of flavors. Although community education may be the key to stopping hunting, propellor blades of motor boats continue to slaughter manatees accidentally, and the careless use of herbicides is also a threat.


	Web www.savethemanatee.com


	Web www.savethemanatee.com