Spotting a manatee in the Chesapeake is rare but not uncommon, and we may see more in the future. You may remember the sensation in 1994 when a male West Indian manatee was spotted in the Chesapeake Bay, which earned him the name “Chessie.” After being tagged by USGS, his northward travels along the East Coast fascinated scientists and provided new information about manatee spatial use. He was tagged the following season, too, but that tag and all subsequent tags fell off. Seventeen years later, Chessie was again spotted in the Chesapeake Bay, and then in 2021, he was rescued for emaciation during the manatee Unusual Mortality Event along the east coast of Florida. Chessie was again fitted with a GPS satellite tag, this time by Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute (CMARI). This tag data from Chessie and other tagged manatees deepens our understanding of their movements, behavior, and habitat selection. In this talk, we’ll learn about manatees and check in on Chessie with Julia Courville from CMARI.
Julia Courville‘s primary role involves tracking and monitoring the behavior and movement of manatees, as well as assisting in the photo identification of the threatened population. Julia completed her Master’s degree at Jacksonville University, Florida, where she published her thesis work investigating microplastic ingestion in odontocetes. She has been involved in various projects ranging from bottlenose dolphin ecology studies in St.Johns River to rescuing injured and sick sea lions and seals in Central California. In her free time, Julia loves traveling, scuba diving, reading, and hanging with her pup.
