Longtime manatee researcher knows hundreds of sea cows by name
“There’s Lily,” said Wayne Hartley, gesturing underneath the water’s surface within Blue Spring run from atop his signature red canoe that displays the label, “manatee research.”
In the 80 years he’s been alive, the manatee specialist has spent 44 of them among the sea cows in Blue Spring State Park, which thousands of tourists flock to see each year. Hartley began working as a park ranger and park service specialist, arriving at the Volusia County park in 1980 before transitioning into working for the Save the Manatee Club about 14 years ago.
This weekend, fans of Florida’s fabled sea cows can celebrate at the Orange City Manatee Festival, which takes place Jan. 27-28 at Valentine Park and includes free shuttles to the state park.
While this winter season recently tallied a record 932 manatees in one day, per a count from the state park, Hartley recalls a time when he was only responsible for tracking a few dozen sea cows. Now, hundreds swim into the spring run every day during the wintertime season.
“We probably didn’t count 36 at once, but that’s how many we saw in the course of the season,” he said, recalling the time he started working at the park. “It’s 1,400 and something now. They all have numbers, and now all of them have names.”
Lily, who Hartley regularly sees, has been a wintertime regular at Blue Spring State Park since 1974. As the oldest known female manatee in the park, she’s had 11 known calves (plus at least one great-grandcalf ) and carries deep gashes on her back from a boat strike. When Hartley goes out to count manatees from his canoe, he carries scar charts that help him identify individuals, but he can name several hundred off the top of his head.
“The season started late, and because we’ve had so many manatees, I’m still running out of pages,” he said, thinking back on his interesting encounters. “I once reached back to push off on a tree limb and held flippers with a manatee.”
His research helped Save the Manatee Club start its Adopt-A-Manatee program, where supporters can pay a donation to symbolically adopt one of several manatees with unique stories listed online. After doing this work for so long, Hartley has seen a handful of named manatees pass away, sometimes dying of old age after living to be about 60 years old.
“I believe they would easily make 65 years of age or more if undisturbed in the wild,” he said. “My favorite was [the late] Phoebe because she was the biggest one, 2,275 pounds or something like that.”
Hartley also speaks fondly of Crazy Nick, a manatee with unpredictable tendencies who got his reputation for heading north when all the other manatees headed south. Some sea cows disappear from the spring run for a decade or more and then return, and the researcher has surprised himself with an ability to still recognize certain individuals even after long stints away.
In his work, Hartley has also observed notable behaviors like young calves feeding from mothers who aren’t their own or interesting social dynamics.
“I had one come in one winter, going up and down the spring run. He was swimming up to the others, laying there and touching them. I think he was saying to them, ‘So this is where you went,'” he said. “Sometimes you anthropomorphize them like that.”
If you go
The Orange City Blue Spring Manatee Festival is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Jan. 27-28 at 1511 W. French Ave. in Orange City. The festival includes arts and crafts vendors, family-friendly entertainment, Frisbee dogs, children’s activities and state park shuttles. Tickets are $10 for adults, $2 for children ages 4-10 and $10 for dogs. For more information about the festival, visit themanateefestival.com or for more information about Save the Manatee Club, visit savethemanatee.org.