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Please show respect and caution if you encounter a manatee -- never approach a manatee. Respect manatee speed zones if you operate a boat in their environment. Manatees are slow-moving creatures and when they surface to breathe, they are barely visible to boats...they simply raise their nostrils above the surface to exhale and then quickly inhale. Assume that manatees are in the water and travel slowly to give them enough time to hear your boat and then descend. Manatees have sustained many life-threatening and fatal injuries from boat propellers. Every manatee injury or manatee death is a tremendous threat to this highly endangered species.

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