Have I mentioned I love manatees? I really love manatees.
On our way to the grocery store yesterday we saw a lady with a shirt that read "Manatee Scientist" walking out of the marina with some gear in tow. We hadn't seen her before so we decided to stop and inquire about her. And, well, yep, she's a marine biologist involved with a conservation group called Sea to Shore Alliance, and she was tracking a manatee that was currently in our marina. The little manatee we've been seeing is named Abigail and she's an orphan! Awwww.
The biologist gave us her card and told us to give her a call if we spotted a manatee with a tag on it in the marina. I don't know of any other groups tagging manatees, so if you're a liveaboard in Florida reading this maybe you can call that group when you spot a tagged manatee!

They also do sea turtle conservation, and during our chat we mentioned to her the obnoxious spotlights in West Palm Beach that blinded us during our journey. Maybe we've just started a movement to make those damn lights illegal. I really hope so. I also love sea turtles, and if you didn't know bright lights on shore confuse baby sea turtles and cause them to wander inland and die instead of swimming into moonlit waters. You can google it, but here's an article about it. Also, it's annoying to have your darkvision fried while sailing at night.

I think our chat gave her a bit of hope. We both really care about sea life but most boaters just don't, and I could see myself getting really p.o.'d at boaters as a group if I was a conservationist.

At some point I'm going to write a post about how living at a marina has made us both more environmentally conscious. And for me at least, more...spiritual? We both feel more in tune with nature than ever before. Deserving of its own post, definitely. That alone makes me reluctant (or unwilling) to ever return to land.