Seagrass collapse
Nutrient pollution and algal blooms killed the seagrass of the Indian River Lagoon, and more than a thousand manatees starved.
Your symbolic adoption supports the Wildlife Connect Manatee Fund, which provides funding to vetted organizations working to protect manatees and their habitats.
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| Item | $25 | $50 | $100 | $250 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold plated 2026 ornamentFree through December 20th, 2026 | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Personalized adoption certificate | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Collectible species cardFront and back | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| 8" plush | Not included | Included | Not included | Not included |
| 12" plush | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Wildlife Connect tote | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
Manatees are slow, enormous, and entirely harmless, which is part of why they are so easily hurt. Behind the ones still grazing seagrass is work with a short feedback loop: rescue teams with boats and trailers, rehabilitation pools where an injured animal spends months, and the seagrass restoration that decides whether there is anything to eat when it goes back.
A symbolic adoption connects you directly to it.
Your adoption helps support the organizations protecting manatees and the waters they feed in. Rescue and rehabilitation return animals to the wild every year, and it is one of the few places in conservation where you can point at an individual and say that worked. The wider trouble is still there. The West Indian manatee is Vulnerable, and Florida lost more than a thousand animals in the mortality event that began in 2021 when seagrass beds collapsed.
And your adoption gives you something to hold onto, too.
You'll receive a personalized adoption certificate and a collectible, numbered species card that tells the story of the animal you're helping protect. At higher adoption levels, you'll also receive a manatee plush: a small, tangible reminder of something much bigger.
Because the best gifts don't disappear when they're opened. They spark curiosity. They start conversations. They remind us that an animal drifting through a warm spring in Florida is part of our world, too. Its future is something all of us can help protect.
Adopt a manatee. Help protect its water. Become part of its story.
Population trend: decreasing. The West Indian manatee is Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and Florida's population went through an unusual mortality event beginning in 2021.
Nutrient pollution and algal blooms killed the seagrass of the Indian River Lagoon, and more than a thousand manatees starved.
Manatees are slow and have to surface to breathe. Scarring is common enough that researchers identify individuals by it.
Manatees cannot tolerate cold and crowd into warm-water refuges, several of which are outflows from aging power plants.
Amazonian and West African manatees are still hunted, with very little funding or attention going to either.
Funds from our manatee adoptions go to the Wildlife Connect Manatee Fund, which supports vetted wildlife sanctuaries and conservation organizations working to protect manatees, their habitats, and the many species that live alongside them.
Learn about our impact