NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Talk about a special treat.
A “big boy” manatee was spotted this week in the Lafayette branch of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk. A viewer sent a video of the manatee to WAVY’s Report It! that shows it sticking its snout out of the water on Sunday.
While it’s not totally uncommon to see manatees in local waters in the summertime, this is the first official sighting since 2022, per Casey Shaw with the Elizabeth River Project. That’s when manatees were spotted in the Elizabeth River near Nauticus. That sighting happened just days after a manatee was spotted near the Newport News Seafood Industrial Park.
Manatees, also known as the sea cow, are a threatened species typically found in Florida. Though when the waters elsewhere warm up, the manatees will venture to north up in the East Coast, typically to about North Carolina, and west to places like Louisiana.
Just recently, there have been two manatee sightings in local North Carolina waters, one in Wanchese and one near the Cape Hatteras Coast Station, per the North Carolina Aquarium. The annual average for sightings in North Carolina waters in the past five years is 11, typically from May to November.
“But every now and they’ll go a little farther north,” Shaw said. “… they’ve been spotted as far north as Massachusetts. So it’s one of those things as we’re seeing temperatures rise, species are expanding their ranges farther north.”
Shrimp are another marine species on the move. In the past, when you heard shrimp you’d think about the waters off North Carolina and further south, but now shrimp are even in the Elizabeth River, Shaw says.
“Here they are on the Elizabeth River. It’s commonplace now. Even off the coast now they’re getting permits to commercially fish shrimp.”
Meanwhile Shaw says if you do happen to see a manatee locally, give the Virginia Aquarium’s Stranding Response Team a call at (757) 385-7575. The OBX Marine Mammal Stranding Network also has an online form in addition to its hotline: 252-455-9654.
“Their stranding response team will definitely want to know about the sighting, and that they are here in the area.”
Shaw says boaters especially need to be aware of manatees out on the water.
“Manatee are not like the dolphins we’ve gotten used to seeing on the Elizabeth River.. whereas the dolphin will play at your bow, play around your boat, they’re fast swimming — the manatees are not. They’re a lot slower, they’re not as maneuverable in the water. You know we’ve lovingly heard them referred to as the ‘sea cow if you will.'”
“So just be just be aware we are seeing these spottings in the area. Keep an eye out. Go slow. Because the manatees, unlike dolphins, are much more vulnerable to propellor strikes because they’re not as maneuverable.”
Shaw says it’s also just thrilling to see manatees in the Elizabeth River, which was basically left for dead just decades ago. Now, thanks in part to the Elizabeth River Project, the waters not only have dolphins and manatees, but seahorses and restored marsh habitats on many shorelines.
“We’ve been working at the Elizabeth River Project for 30 years now to restore the health of the urban river. Over that time the river was written off as dead in the 90s. It was going to be an industrial highway … but now with the largest Navy base in the world we’ve got dolphins swimming, we’ve got seahorses are commonplace.”
One of the big things that’s helped clean up the river was the River Star Homes program that launched in 2001, Shaw said. More than 6,500 homeowners around the river have pledged to reduce fertilizer use, scoop up pet waste and more to reduce harmful bacteria and prevent algae blooms.
And one restoration element in particular that helps the manatees, herbivores who feed on underwater sea grasses, is the flourishing of “fringe wetlands.”
“[The Elizabeth River’s] never historically had underwater grasses, that’s just not something that’s part of the habitat here like you’ll see up on the Eastern Shore. But this manatee that we got the video of, he looked he was up on one of those fringe marshes, he or she, so he could have been munching on our native spartina grass.”
WAVY’s also reached out to the Virginia Aquarium to get their latest data on manatee sightings and will update this story when we hear back.
You can also learn more about the Elizabeth River Project and its new $8 million Ryan Resiliency Lab here.