Manatee are a protected species. They love the brackish water, it is where they spawn and it is considerably warmer than the sea. Manatees do spend a lot of time in the sea as well. They are very calm animals and spend a lot of their time eating and resting. Their diets consist mainly of algae and seaweed, basically the ones here in Florida are vegans. When the weather is cold they like to "hang out" in the river even more, because it's warmer. The State of Florida is a Manatee safe haven. The state has many laws protecting wild life, in fact Dwight explained to us yesterday on our Dolphin tour that Florida has more laws protecting wild life than any other state.
Never feed wild life. They get to comfortable with people and they have a tendency to get a false sense of security from people. Manatees are already running into issues with motor boats and people feeding and watering them creates more issues. They are mammals and they do like to drink fresh water, so running a hose or other source of fresh water does attract them. This is also against the law in Florida and can incur a large fine if you are caught. I think our kayaks must have had algae built up on them because they attracted some of the manatees and several of them appeared to be licking the boat. I was afraid for a minute that they would tip us, they probably could have because they weigh about 1000 pounds at least, but then they were so calm and friendly. They seemed to like it when we talked to them. Also, I got to see one of them turn and dive and I could see it's belly button.
When they die they have to be towed out of the river by the DNR or police. They are extremely large and their bodies become a source for predators in the river. They also ship their bodies off for autopsies to determine the cause of death. The only reason I know this is because we saw one being towed. It's a huge research opportunity for marine life. In fact some of them have transmitters placed on them and you can see them on the manatee when they swim.
The Manatee Park also has many lovely little walking trails and a river walk where you can see the manatees by land. We walked the paths after our Kayaking and discovered uses of indigenous plants and saw many small animals wandering around. It was a great adventure taking the kayak out and the only complaint we had was too much sun shine. (I think back home in Michigan, where it is currently negative 10 degrees Fahrenheit, I hear people saying, "Boo-Hoo" sarcastically. Seriously though, I did get sunburned. lol)
Here's where we went:http://www.leeparks.org/facility-info/facility-details.cfm?Project_Num=0088
And of course a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJVC5HN2BGM
