Manatee Talk

Friends members Scott and Beth Wright, like so many other Friends members, are also active in Cedar Keys Audubon. The interests and goals of our two organizations often parallel each other. Scott and Beth will give a lecture for Audubon about their manatee research. The talk is at the Cedar Key Community Center at 5 p.m. on Monday Feb. 28. The Audubon announcement is below.

Manatee and seagrass

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After a pause of two years in presentations due to Covid, Cedar Keys Audubon is pleased to announce the first in new talks this February. On Monday, February 28, the local Audubon chapter will be presenting “Manatees – a Species on the Brink” by manatee researchers Scott and Beth Wright. It will be held at the Cedar Key Community Center at 5pm.

Scott and Beth both have had years of professional experience working with manatees. Scott worked as a research scientist and director of the Marine Mammal Pathobiology Laboratory for the state of Florida. Then he moved to Madison, Wisconsin as Chief of Disease Investigation at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center. Beth, whose early background was in wildlife biology, spent 17 years in the field monitoring manatees for the state of Florida and developed improved techniques for tagging manatees.

Now in retirement, Scott and Beth, as volunteers for local manatee monitoring, are again applying their deep backgrounds.  Their talk will explore the current work they’re doing to photo-identify individual manatees at Manatee and Fanning Springs State Parks as well as presenting interesting characteristics of general manatee biology. There will also be a discussion of the plight of the Florida east coast sub-population.

Cedar Keys Audubon does ask, that if you decide to attend, that you be fully vaccinated and wear a mask.