igh. These days it’s no fun to read the news. Most of the environmental stories are bad, and even the “good” ones don’t hold up to closer inspection. Take the West Indian Manatee, which lives in the coastal waters off of the Southeastern United States.

I love manatees (I’ve written about the species multiple times). Because I live in Florida now, I have had the privilege of spotting hundreds of them where they winter in natural Florida springs as well as near the warm waters of power plants – I’ve even snorkeled with them! In addition to being huge, this gentle giant perfectly encapsulates nature’s cool factor, swimming effortlessly with their impressive bulks and subsisting on a primarily vegetarian diet.

Read the whole blog at the Duke Nicholas School!