Save the Manatee Club (SMC) and Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) are excited to announce that manatee ‘Clog’ joins Save the Manatee Club’s long-standing Adopt-A-Manatee® Program.
Clog typically migrates from Alabama to Florida’s west coast each winter. He was first photo-identified in Homosassa, Florida, in 1993, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s photo identification database, showing that he is over 31 years old. He is well known among Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Manatee Sighting Network staff for his distinct “frowny face” scar pattern on his left side since they first identified him in Fly Creek, Alabama, using photo identification in 2020.
Clog’s distinct name and sociable personality have made him a crowd favorite in Alabama since 2022, when he was tagged and given a health assessment by researchers. They quickly realized he was a known manatee who had been captured for a health assessment once before in 2007 near Tampa Bay, Florida. During the time he was tagged, he spent time along the Alabama and Mississippi coasts, with frequent sightings in Dog River, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, and Bayou La Batre in Alabama, and in the Mississippi Sound. He also spent considerable time in Santa Rosa Sound off the Florida Panhandle coast during his migrations.
Manatees are primarily concentrated in peninsular Florida in the winter, usually November through March. But in the summer months, they are much more widely distributed, and sightings along the northern Gulf and U.S. Atlantic coasts are increasingly common. It was in 2007 that Dauphin Island Sea Lab started their Manatee Sighting Network to track manatees in Alabama and surrounding waters. The DISL/MSN team continues to monitor manatee migrations and habitat use in the northern Gulf.
“Clog’s distinct pattern has made it fun to track him, and we have years of information on him through photo identification as well as high-resolution tagging data,” DISL-MSN Manager and graduate student Sophia Corde said. “Sighting reports from residents and visitors are key to our photo-ID process. Sighting reports provide us with invaluable information about our manatee visitors, and associated photos let us track repeat visitors. Our partnership with the Save the Manatee Club has allowed us to share this information about manatee presence in our area more broadly.”
Summer is also prime boating season, and it is important to be extra vigilant when on the water, especially in shallow areas and near seagrass beds. Obeying posted speed zones, wearing polarized sunglasses, and having a designated spotter on your vessel are some recommendations to keep manatees safe this summer. Both SMC and DISL provide free educational information and signage to boaters.
“We are excited to add another Alabama adoptee to our program and continue our long-time partnership with DISL,” says Patrick Rose, Aquatic Biologist and Executive Director of Save the Manatee Club. “As manatees are facing unprecedented challenges in Florida and are expanding their habitat, it becomes ever more important to raise awareness and educate people both in Florida and along the Northern Gulf about their presence, including how to safely boat and share the waterways with them.”
Clog is joining manatee Bama as another Alabama adoptee in SMC’s program. A portion of proceeds from the adoptions of Clog and Bama are used to help fund DISL/MSN’s awareness and outreach efforts. DISL/MSN promotes manatee education by distributing Save the Manatee Club’s public awareness waterway signs and boat decals in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Both Clog and Bama can be adopted online at adoptamanatee.org or by calling SMC at 1-800-432-JOIN (5646).