Manatee Migration Update: May 7, 1997

Cathy Beck, Bob Bonde, and Jim Reid are biologists with the U.S. Department of the Interior's Sirenia Project, a federal program initiated in 1974 to conduct detailed life history studies on the endangered manatee. Cathy and Bob joined the Project in 1978, Jim in 1983.

Thanks to Cathy, Jim and Bob, you can look at the latest data on the manatees we are tracking at the end of this report. Look closely at Dakota's movements over the last few weeks--do you notice anything unusual? He's quite an explorer! But first, let's meet our Manatee Scientists.

Cathy Beck	Bob Bonde	Jim Reid

Meet Cathy Beck, Bob Bonde and Jim Reid
Cathy manages the Manatee Individual Photo-identification System (MIPS), a computerized photographic catalog that currently includes 1,042 wild manatees, with information on each individual's travels and behaviors. She also is involved in manatee food habits, vegetation and parasite studies.

Bob and Jim have extensive experience in radio-telemetry techniques, including both VHF and satellite-monitored tracking of manatees. They both also are accomplished swimmers and photographers of wild manatees, often finding it necessary to immerse themselves in their work in order to photograph or tag manatees!

Bob also has 22 years of experience in manatee and whale necropsy studies, and is the Large Whale Necropsy Team Leader for the National Marine Fisheries Service. He has flown over 38,000 miles of aerial surveys looking for manatees in Florida, Puerto Rico, Belize, Mexico, and Panama.

Jim has conducted extensive research in Puerto Rico, radiotracking manatees and surveying seagrass habitats. He also is the Project's Argos program coordinator. Jim is married and has three dogs and one cat. He enjoys hiking, biking, sailing, kayaking, SCUBA diving, wind surfing, water and snow skiing, and other perilous activities. Bob and Cathy are married and have a 13 year old son, Michael, an 8 year old daughter, Julie, one dog, Copper, and one cat, Dusky. They enjoy outdoor activities, traveling, gardening, and collecting books and beanie babies (-:

Brought To You By...
Thanks also to Service ARGOS, the technology company that manages the ARGOS satellite system that is used to receive and organize the tracking data from the transmitters.

• Link to Today's Satellite Data.

As you can see from the data, Dakota has been taking some interesting paths of travel over the last few weeks. According to Cathy Beck, by April 18 Dakota had been moving south and was in Manatee Bay. He had been seen in an area of high boat traffic and Cathy, Jim and Bob were somewhat concerned for his safety and/or that he could lose his tag, so Jim was planning to check on him in the next week.

By April 25, Dakota continued to move farther down the Keys, and then north into Florida Bay, which is not a high use area for manatees. Everglades National Park personnel were flying about that time so they were going to try to get a visual on him and to see if he is with other manatees. By May 2, Cathy reported that Dakota had moved back toward the east into southern Dade County. As Cathy said, Dakota must have been "exploring" Florida Bay, where there is little fresh water accessible to manatees, and consequently not a large resident population.

The FINAL Manatee report Will Be Posted On May 14, 1997