Manatees turn up near Crab Island

From his condo at Sides Moreno Point West, Danny Griffin can see Choctawhatchee Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, the East Pass, Destin's harbor and Crab Island.

Wednesday, he saw something he didn't expect.

A neighbor who lives on the fourth floor told him there was "something strange in the water." It was eight manatees.

"It tickled me to death that we had manatees out there," Griffin said.

It occurred to him that the large aquatic mammals may need protection as they made their way to where they were headed, so Griffin and his wife, Colette, hopped into their boat and "escorted" the manatees to a sandbar north of Crab Island, a shallow area popular with boaters just north of the Marler Bridge.

Seeing the manatees, also known as sea cows, up-close was great but Griffin noticed something about the manatees as he helped steer them through the bay four of them had propellor marks on their bodies where they had come into contact with humans and their boats.

"One of them had a pretty good chunk missing out of his back and that really bothered me," Griffin said.

He said that near his condominium, more no-wake signs are needed in the water to warn boaters to slow down as they enter the sometimes-congested no-wake area near the bridge and Crab Island. Given that this is the third time he recalls seeing manatees in the area, Griffin said boaters need to be aware of where they're going and watch out for the animals.

"For whatever reason, we have these manatees coming into the bay and if we're going to have them here, then we need to protect em," he said.

Patrick Gault, assistant director of the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge, said the refuge's staff was aware of the manatee spotting Wednesday and said manatees, while not common, sometimes make their way to the area.

"Manatees congregate around warmer Florida waters in the winter and spread out over the Gulf in the summer. They have been reported as far west as Louisiana, so seeing them here is not that unusual, although as with any highly endangered species, any sighting is noteworthy," Gault said.

He said the West Indian Manatees, the species native to Florida, are protected as endangered species at the federal and state levels.