An aggregation of manatees!

Even the manatees like to hang out on clean beaches ever once in a while.  Have you ever seen a bunch of manatees beach themselves?  We have, and once we got over the initial shock of thinking they were in trouble, it was quite possibly one of the coolest things we have ever seen while at the beach.

Did you know a group of manatees is called an aggregation.  Manatees often swim alone or with just a few friends.  Because they are grazing creatures with no specific territory, they have no need for leaders or even followers.  When they come together in groups it is normally for mating reasons.  Sometimes during mating season, the females will intentionally beach themselves to shrug off the males for a bit.  This can be a very tragic looking situation at first, but they always return to the sea after a few minutes of sun bathing.  Though they look clumsy and helpless, they are able to navigate themselves back to into deeper water.

Manatees have to endure a wide host of environmental problems along the Gulf Coast.  Most all can be directly contributed to human-related causes.  Collisions with boats and barges is the leading cause of mortality.  They are also one of our beach friends that are at high risk because of litter and plastic pollution.  When single use plastic gets entangled in the sea grass beds where they feed, it is easily mistaken for their natural vegetation.  

Now is the time to make a stand against single use plastic products and help protect the manatees and all of our other beach friends that are directly impacted.  Our family is on a journey to discover a better path and help reduce our plastic footprint.  Will you come along for the adventure with us?  Oliver promises, the manatees will thank us for the effort!