Looking-Glass and VeggieGlobal Good-Cause Support
Protect the Manatees (and Dugongs) - The Gentle Giants

Pictures Coming Soon

Manatees live in river estuaries and sheltered bays around the warmer seas off Central and South America. These wonderfully docile mammals, which can grow up to 13ft long, are herbivorous (vegetarian) and can live up to 60 years. Manatees living within US Coastal waters are protected under law, but this harmless creature's greatest enemy is watercraft - mainly recreational boats, which speed around manatee habitats killing and severly maming them. While being nonaggressive, nonterritorial, minding their own busness and of no threat to anyone, manatees spend much of their lives quietly resting just below the water surface. But as boats hurtle back and forth, propellers cause horrific carnage to the Manatees. Other human-related causes of manatee deaths include poaching, being crushed or drowned in locks and flood control mechanisms as well as getting entangled in fishing traps and lines. All this has sadly led to one of the most lovable but lesser-known mammals of our natural world to become a critically endangered species. There are now only around 3,000 manatees left.

What can you do to Help? Outside the US, particularly in the UK and Europe, manatee rescue gets very little public exposure, so this Looking-Glass and VeggieGlobal support page aims to bring this urgent issue to a global audience. Save the Manatee Club was established in 1981 so the public could participate in conservation efforts to save endangered manatees from extinction. Funds from the Adopt-A-Manatee program go toward public awareness and education projects; manatee research; rescue and rehabilitation efforts. http://www.savethemanatee.org Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge also rehabilitates manatees in the Florida area. Emerald rely on volunteers and public donations to operate. http://www.ecwildliferefuge.com/index.html Other useful reading about the Manatee crisis in the US: Humane Society Report

Pictures Coming Soon

Pictures Coming Soon

Dugongs and more about "sea cows" Dugongs are the closest living relative to the manatee and are suffering similar, serious threats through human-caused mortality. Dugongs are found in the Indo-Pacific ocean - even as far west as the East African coast but are mostly concentrated in northern Australian waters and around the Great Barrier Reef. Unlike the manatee, gugongs live permanently in salt water rather than entering freshwater river estuaries. The greatest threat of the dugongs survival comes from entanglement in commercial fishing nets, shark nets (to protect populated beaches from shark attacks) and boat strikes, including military sea exercises. As with the manatees in America dugongs are below the "sustainable loss" threshold. The last remaining dugongs in Japan have been under serious threat from a American military base that has been built on top of a coral reef. As with the manatee, dugongs are also called sea cows (or even mermaids and are hence collectively known as Sirenia). A once close-relative was Steller's sea cow, which was hunted to extinction in the 18th century. There appears to be no direct rescue organizations available to link to regarding dugong protection. If visitors to this site know of any hands-on dugong rescue organizations please contact us

Looking-Glass & VeggieGlobal is non-profit and depends entirely on your generosity to survive. If you think this information has been useful and you would like to provide a small donation and at the same time add a free link to the website of your favourite cause then please donate to this site's unique CauseClick Grid

More Looking-Glass and VeggieGlobal Good-Cause Support Pages

See the Good-Cause Support Main Menu

Find More Charities and Animal rescue organisations at our Directories Gateway
Read hundreds of articles about animal welfare at the Looking-Glass Global News Site