Protecting a Florida Keystone Species at Walt Disney World
By Timothy Moore
The Seas with Nemo & Friends at EPCOT is an important partner in the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership . In January 2025 , EPCOT said goodbye to its two long-term resident manatees and began preparing the facilities to take in manatees in need of critical , short-term care .
Long before J . M . Barrie populated his world with flirtatious half-fish , half-human temptresses , and even longer before Ariel launched Disney Animation into its Renaissance , a 41-year-old Christopher Columbus spotted mermaids somewhere off the coast of the Dominican Republic . Only they weren ’ t mermaids ; they were manatees , which explains why he wrote that they were “ not half as beautiful as they are painted .”
Not the most inspiring words about manatees , but unfortunately those were the first recorded thoughts on the aquatic mammal in North America . Today , our understanding of the manatee ( also called a sea cow ) has vastly improved — and that ’ s important , because we need to understand this Florida keystone species to protect it .
And manatees need our protection for a lot of reasons , all human-caused . Boat strikes have become all too common , but even manatees who manage to evade errant boats are seeing their habitats destroyed as the Florida coast continues to be developed . Fertilizers and stormwater runoff are causing frequent algae blooms that kill off seagrass — the manatee ' s primary food source .
In collaboration with federal and state entities , including the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission , the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership actively works to rescue , rehabilitate , release , and monitor injured , sick , and orphaned West Indian manatees in Florida ’ s coastal waters . This nonprofit depends on several partners across the country to help with the rehabilitation . One that ’ s quite close to home is The Seas with Nemo & Friends Pavilion at EPCOT .
The second-floor area allows guests to see the manatees from above and learn more about the species from a knowledgeable Cast Member at certain times each day . PHOTO BY LAURIE SAPP