Sightings of sick, injured, orphaned, tagged or harassed manatees can be reported to the Florida Marine Patrol by calling the MANATEE HOTLINE at 1-888-404-FWCC(3922). Wildlife officials will investigate and, if need be, coordinate the rescue of sick, injured, or orphaned manatees. Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Lowry Park Zoo, Miami Seaquarium, and Sea World of Florida are all rehabilitation facilities that are authorized to capture, transport, and treat these animals under the joint supervision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. In addition to those four facilities, other entities are involved in verification of injury, rescue, and transportation under the supervision of the rescue coordinator at the Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI).

The Manatee Carcass Salvage Program is currently operated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Its purpose is to examine manatees found dead in Florida and other parts of the southeastern United States to try to determine the cause of death. Individual citizens can help by calling the MANATEE HOTLINE (1-888-404-FWCC(3922) on your cellular phone) to report the sighting of a dead manatee. By doing a necropsy on a dead animal, scientists can tell some of the causes of manatee deaths. Other valuable information can be collected concerning length, weight, stomach contents, and pathology. Cause of death is divided into categories (see Manatee Mortality Statistics page) and quantified so researchers can better understand the dangers to manatees.

Most adult manatees that inhabitat Florida waters are scarred from collisions with boats. Researchers can use these scars to identify individual animals. By observing an individual over the course of time, researchers can learn many things about migration, travel, important habitat, and other behavioral factors. The Sirenia Project, in cooperation with the Florida Power and Light Company, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and Save the Manatee® Club, maintains a statewide computerized manatee identification catalog with photographs of distinctively scarred manatees. The catalog contains reports of about 1000 individuals.

• Write an essay on why the salvage program is important. If you were a scientist what information could you obtain from the salvage program and how could this information be used to help the manatee survive?

• Some counties in Florida have a continually high rate of boat or barge collisions that cause manatee fatalities. Have a class discussion on ways that local officials could rectify this and other problems threatening the survival of the manatee. Students can write their ideas in the form of a letter to a county official or write a proclamation to set aside certain water ways as manatee sanctuaries.

• Write the MANATEE HOTLINE 1-888-404-FWCC(3922) on the board and have students copy it. Ask them to share this information with their family and post the number near their telephone. Explain that the manatee hotline number works similarly to the Emergency 911 number for people and is often the key to a successful rescue of both people and manatees.

• Design a research form to be used in the Salvage Program. Some items to include would be: species, sex, length, weight, date reported and location, date collected, necropsy findings, probable cause of death, etc.

• Have each student draw an outline of a manatee or a group of manatees. Perhaps they are on an aerial survey and are looking down at a large group of manatees. Have them give each manatee a distinctive scar, tail notch, or both.

• How could the manatee have gotten its scar? Draw a picture of the incident or make up a story telling about the event. Add dialogue and make it into a play. Turn your story into lyrics for a song.

• Create a scar pattern catalog with each student's drawing and story enclosed for display in your school.