The 10th Annual “Save the Manatee” 5KRun/@Mile Walk.Mini Manatee Mile is coming soon.  Race day is Saturday, May 18, 2013 and with proceeds going to supporting the Save the Manatee Club.  Check out the website, www.savethemanatee5K.com.  Ms. Lesley always does a wonderful job with this event and it desreves all the support we can give it.

Folks…it is a great cause and one that is near to my heart because I am fortunate to see these beautiful and graceful animals in the Florida Keys.  I have seen many scared by boat propellers and have witnessed how defenseless they can be when a boat races over them.

Some details about this gentle sea mammal:

West Indian manatees are large, gray aquatic mammals with bodies that taper to a flat, paddle-shaped tail. They have two forelimbs, called flippers, with three to four nails on each flipper. Their head and face are wrinkled with whiskers on the snout. The manatee’s closest relatives are the elephant and the hyrax (a small, gopher-sized mammal). Manatees are believed to have evolved from a wading, plant-eating animal. The West Indian manatee is related to the West African manatee, the Amazonian manatee, the dugong, and Steller’s sea cow, which was hunted to extinction in 1768. The average adult manatee is about 10 feet long and weighs between 800 and 1,200 pounds.  This is a manatee we call “Bert”.  He comes to visit us from time to time at our marina in the Keys.

Author: capthook

Greg Davies is a life-long resident of Harrison Township, MI. At the age on one, my family moved from Detroit, Mi to my first home just a few streets down on Jefferson from Metropolitan Beach. It was a dream location to grow up with the lake and all of the activities a kid and even a grown-up could enjoy. Although it has changed a lot over the years, it is still a quaint community with the right kind of people in it.