Save the Manatee Club, the world’s largest manatee
conservation organization, today announced the official debut of their
new manatee webcams at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, Florida.
Under water and above water cameras strategically located in the park’s
spring run provide mass live streaming of endangered manatees and other
amazing Florida wildlife seven days a week, year-round, just a computer
key click away at www.savethemanatee.org/
Also,
people who drive to Blue Spring to explore the park can watch the live
webcams from a large TV screen in the Concession Courtyard area and view
select webcam video footage. Much of each day’s live views are being
archived for those who have missed it or if not much is happening on any
given day. The intent is to always provide something interesting for
viewers to see when visiting the livecams page. In order to see
previously recorded live views, go to livestream.com/
In
winter, wild manatees are found in Florida at warm-water sites such as
natural springs and effluents of power plants, as they are a subtropical
species and cannot tolerate prolonged exposure to water temperatures
below 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Blue Spring is one of the most important
warm-water refuges for the Upper St. Johns River manatees, with a
constant year-round temperature of 72 degrees.
“Our
webcams at Blue Spring will give viewers who might never otherwise see a
manatee the opportunity to view them up close, in real time, and to
observe them in their natural environment,” said Patrick Rose, an
aquatic biologist and Save the Manatee Club’s Executive Director. “It
will help raise public awareness about manatees, garner thousands,
perhaps millions of new fans around the world, and ultimately strengthen
the connection between people and the state’s official marine mammal.
Hopefully, people will come to understand the important role manatees
play in the aquatic ecosystem. Further, webcams will offer very unique
opportunities for additional research, as well as helping with
preliminary health assessments of individual manatees who may be injured
or sick and may need rescuing.”
Blue
Spring Park Manager, Robert Rundle, is pleased with the addition of the
webcams to the park. “I think the webcams provide a wonderful
opportunity to view Blue Spring manatees from a remote location. This
interactive experience will help educate students and other viewers to
Blue Spring about its importance as a warm-water refuge for the
manatees.”
Webcam
visitors world-wide are able to watch manatees in the wild, including
Blue Spring manatees featured in Save the Manatee Club’s popular
Adopt-A-Manatee® program. Wayne Hartley, the Club’s Manatee Specialist,
will provide narration for upcoming webcam projects. Hartley spent 31
years as a Blue Spring State Park ranger conducting research on the life
histories of the manatees there. Since 2010, he continues his vital
research as a member of the Club’s staff.
“I’m
looking forward to engaging the many school classes who will now be
able to visit the park during the morning manatee counts even if they
aren’t at the park,” said Hartley. “Through many hours of observation, I
can identify most of the manatees who winter in the spring run. They
are like old friends, each with distinct personalities and antics.”
Manatees
are listed as endangered at the international, national, and state
levels largely due to human activity. The population is estimated to be
about 5,000 concentrated year-round in Florida. According to
preliminary figures from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission, 453 manatees died from all causes in 2011 – 88 from boat
strikes and at least 112 from cold stress. In the last two
record-setting years, a total of 1,219 manatees died from all causes.
“We
are seeing a new trend over the last several years of much higher
deaths from cold stress and no abatement in the numbers of manatees
killed by boat strikes,” explained Rose. “These are the areas on which
we must focus if we are to ultimately recover this species.”
Save
the Manatee Club is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, established in
1981 by world-renowned singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett and former
Florida Governor and U.S. Senator, Bob Graham.
Internet
service at the park is being provided as a donation from CenturyLink.
The Club also wishes to thank their other partners including Axis
Communications who provided cameras, Blue Springs Enterprises, Inc.,
Livestream, Midwest Surveillance, Royal “T” Systems, and TREC Services,
Inc. A special thanks is extended to Robert Rundle, Blue Spring State
Park Manager, and to everyone at the park who helped on the webcam
project.
“We
hope the public will visit the online webcam site often to observe,
learn and appreciate just how unique, wonderful, and vulnerable these
remarkable marine mammals are, and how both the manatees and the Blue
Spring run are totally dependent on all of us for their future
existences,” said Rose.
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