Manatee Sighting

We saw our first manatee in the canal today. We've heard many people talk about seeing manatees in the area, but never seen one ourselves. I was sitting on the back patio and heard it come to the surface and take a breath. It hung out in the canal for a couple hours. Manatees are very, very slow-moving creatures. It was both intriguing and sad to see it. Intriguing of course to see a creature in its natural habitat. Sad because the manatee is endangered and because it's a good bet that the manatee had propeller marks on its back. It never got close enough for us to get a good look, but every single other manatee we've seen has had marks on its back. We also felt a little guilty because we have an outboard motor on our boat. We've never hit a manatee, but the way it was moving, we might very well hit one, even as slow as we go (about 6 mph max). The manatee wouldn't be able to get out of our way, and it would be hard to see it in the water unless it was fully on the surface (see the pics below). From the pics you can't tell if it's a manatee or a mound of sludge, but trust me, it was a manatee.