Forget a yacht party, there was a manatee party in a Hilton Head marina! Check it out
Marlene Stephenson thought she saw a rock in the water off the side of her 42-foot boat docked in the Harbour Town Yacht Basin.
Then the rock lifted its head out of the water.
“He stuck his nose out, and he was so cute!” she told The Island Packet of her manatee neighbor.
Stephenson and her family started to record when they saw the manatee, and then they noticed something.
“We were watching him roll around in the water, and then we realized, ‘Oh my God! There are four!” she said.
Four manatees have been hanging out in the empty slips in the marina for the last week. Stephenson said she’d never seen that many in one place before.
Hilton Head boaters and beachgoers are accustomed to interactions with the gentle giants.
Last summer, people on the beach in Sea Pines got up close and personal with a herd of eight manatees who were mating near the shoreline.
Hilton Head typically sees manatees in the late spring when the water reaches at least 68 degrees. They like to hang out in calmer waters in marinas near fresh water sources.
Look, but don’t touch manatees!
Manatees are protected under federal and South Carolina laws because they are a threatened species, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
The animals were considered endangered from 1967 until early 2017, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services reclassified the species as “threatened” after the population grew.
Though the classification changed, the law did not.
It is still illegal to hunt or harass manatees.
That includes touching, watering, hunting or attempting to feed them. Any of those actions could result in fines of up to $100,000 and a year in jail, according to the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Touching or otherwise interacting with manatees encourages them to come where humans are, according to SCDNR spokesperson David Lucas.
That puts the manatees in danger. They can be hit, hurt or killed by boats or become entangled in fishing gear.
Lucas has one piece of advice: “Enjoy manatees from a distance.”
This story was originally published June 21, 2021 at 4:30 AM.
