"The manatee is the gentlest animal in the lagoon. Sailors used to mistake them for mermaids! Before the booms and the seawalls, the Indian River Lagoon was full of seagrass — and full of manatees. They ate, they napped, they raised their calves. The lagoon was their home, and it was a good one."
When Manatees Were Everywhere
The West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) is one of Florida's most iconic species. Historically, manatees were abundant throughout the Indian River Lagoon — an estuary that once held some of the most extensive seagrass meadows in Florida. Manatees are herbivores: an adult eats 100–150 pounds of seagrass and aquatic plants a day. The lagoon's vast seagrass beds — turtle grass, manatee grass, shoal grass — supported a large and healthy manatee population. Manatees migrate into the lagoon and other warm coastal waters in the summer, and retreat to natural warm-water springs and warm-water refuges (like power plant discharges) in the winter. For thousands of years, this system worked. The lagoon was a manatee paradise — clear water, lush seagrass, and warm refuge nearby. European settlers called them 'sea cows.' Sailors — including Christopher Columbus — mistook them for mermaids. The manatee was a symbol of Florida's gentle, abundant wildlife.
