Save the Manatee club is a nonprofit manatee conservation organization dedicated to protecting manatees and their habitat. Jimmy Buffet co-founded the group along with former US Senator, Bob Graham, when he was governor of Florida in 1981. Adoption program funds help finance emergency rescue response for sick and injured manatees, and for waterway signage, public awareness, research, and much more.

Manatees, as Florida’s official state marine mammal, are listed as endangered largely due to human activity. Since 1974 when record keeping began, more than 41% of manatee deaths in which the cause of death was stipulated, were identified as human-related and 34% involved watercraft collisions. By educating the public the club strives to help protect the endangered manatees and their habitat.

“We are perpetually faced with numerous important environmental and political problems that have the potential to negatively affect manatees and their habitat,” says Patrick Rose, Aquatic Biologist and Executive Director of Save the Manatee Club. “Manatee adoptions help tremendously to fund manatee rescue, rehabilitation, and release efforts; research; education and public awareness projects; conservation work to protect manatees and their habitat; and programs in the United States, Central and South America, the Wider Caribbean, and West Africa.”

Adoptions start at $25. For more information about manatees and to adopt one contact Save the Manatee Club at 500 N. Maitland Ave, Maitland, FL 32751, call 1-800-432-5646 or www.savethemanatee.org