Some say this article is Steller. I say it's a load of dugong.

Must... touch... boat...

Biness: stupid sea cow

This. Manatees are the "full retards" of the marine mammals.

Snarcoleptic_Hoosier: Must... touch... boat...

This is an accurate representation of Manatee thinking. They don't get hit by boats because they can't get out of the way. They get hit by boats because they deliberately put themselves in the way.

/did some manatee studies on the IRL in Florida in university.
//dumb, dumb animals
///probably dumber than the North Atlantic Right Whale

Manatee are awesome. A friend of mine had a biologist gig in Florida a few years ago and we got to put our feet in the water near several Manatee and they came u and rubbed themselves on us. I fell in love with them instantly.

/don't get me going on boaters negligence
//DNRTFA

I love how they go on about it being a powder keg, yet they didn't do much of anything while gangs were taking over certain parts of town (our idiot former sheriff was too busy hanging out with Jeb Bush talking about being tough on crime to actually be tough on it), and it's like pulling teeth to get them to clean up any gang-oriented graffiti. True story: the cops weren't cleaning up gang graffiti in one neighborhood, so a drug dealer got fed up with it and went and bought a bucket of paint and painted over all of it. It's pretty bad when drug dealers are more civic minded then the cops are.

Kaka: It was really amazing to see such a HUGE animal three feet away.

Oh, I understand completely, and I generally agree that it is cool to see them in the wild. But that doesn't change the fact that they are complete morons. ;)

And, believe it or not, they can be dangerous.

I was a coxswain on the crew team at Fl.Tech. in '97/'98 and we used to practice on the IRL and some side creeks early in the morning. If you've ever seen a racing shell, you know they are long, thin, and fast. Most organisms tend to avoid long, thin, and fast things. Not manatees. They go up and try to touch it. Then they panic when they get smacked by an oar of an unsuspecting rower (the rowers have their backs to them, and the coxswain [me] is in the back facing 8 big guys, so you can't exactly see and maneuver around a manatee. In an 8, it isn't a big deal except for startling us as the water erupts and then a manatee goes sprinting away. However, I had a friend who rowed single sculls (one rower, nine meter by 30 centimeter boat, two oars) get sent to the hospital because of a manatee. Same deal, manatee tried to touch a long, fast-moving, sharp-looking object and panicked when it got hit by an oar. Unfortunately, it tail-slapped the boat, destroying it and sending my friend into a bridge piling to receive a broken arm and several cracked ribs, as well as a body full of bruises.

Don't get me wrong; I don't hate manatees. I actually enjoyed seeing them (apart from crew practice) and they were interesting to study. But, they are dumb. ;)

/yeah, I know. cool story, bro.

AbbeySomeone: /don't get me going on boaters negligence

As much as I despise most boaters (I'm definitely not a fan of motors on boats -- give me sails or oars :D ), it isn't *entirely* their faults.

It's a pretty solid mix of boater negligence and manatee stupidity. If there were no boaters, the manatees would be fine. If the manatees had the slightest bit of sense (especially about motors, because these animals do have a sense of hearing), they would probably be fine, though encroachment would still cause problems.

As it stands, put the two together, and manatees are getting their asses kicked. :(

mamoru: AbbeySomeone: /don't get me going on boaters negligence

As much as I despise most boaters (I'm definitely not a fan of motors on boats -- give me sails or oars :D ), it isn't *entirely* their faults.

It's a pretty solid mix of boater negligence and manatee stupidity. If there were no boaters, the manatees would be fine. If the manatees had the slightest bit of sense (especially about motors, because these animals do have a sense of hearing), they would probably be fine, though encroachment would still cause problems.

As it stands, put the two together, and manatees are getting their asses kicked. :(

The Manatee misinterpret the sound and direction of the motor and try to get away from it. They are an endangered species and boaters should be required to have a shield on the motor blades; they aren't expensive. Florida is backwards.