OntheWilderSide

Update: Seems like the manatee is really with us. New reports of a sighting in Halesite on Friday, August 22nd and a sighting in Centerport (Town of Huntington) on Saturday, August 23rd. New article at Newsday here.
peace
KW:
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Better Than Big Foot: And It’s Real…

Well, maybe. Only one family has seen it so far. A manatee in Long Island?

I love manatees. They are such wise, calm creatures. I have seen them on visits to Florida. I love the fact that these big, peaceful, and kind of adorably ugly sea mammals may have been what sailors saw glimpses of, believing they had seen mermaids.

Manatees make me think of my favorite, mushy song, “Have you been half asleep, and have you heard voices? I’ve heard them call my name…Is this the very sound, that called the young sailors? The voice might be one and the same…”

From Newsday
Family reports a manatee in Stony Brook Harbor

BY BILL BLEYER
7:39 PM EDT, August 21, 2008

In a summer that’s already brought us the Montauk Monster and shark sightings at Jones Beach, a Kings Park family now says it’s seen a rare Florida manatee in Stony Brook Harbor.

The sighting, so far unconfirmed by anyone else, was reported by Tara and Vito Inzone and their daughter Briana, 8. They were fishing about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday from a dock at the Smithtown town park at Long Beach. [Suffolk County, Long Island]

“…I thought it was a whale at first. Then its tail came up — and it was a manatee tail. It was wide and distinctive. I said ‘Oh my God, what’s it doing here?'”

The family caught three brief glimpses over a 10-minute span, Inzone said. She added they had lived in Florida for two years where “I had seen manatees all the time.”

Filed under: Environment, Favorite Muses, local, long island, nature, News, Recommended Music Tagged: | Animals, Big Foot, centerport, Environment, Halesite, huntington, Manatee, nature, Smithtown, stony brook, Suffolk County, wildlife