Manatee spotted in Cape Charles Harbor

A manatee was reported to have been spotted in Cape Charles Harbor over the weekend.

According to a social media post from the Cape Charles Yacht Center, the manatee was seen near the boat lift in the Cape Charles Harbor.

Boaters are asked to proceed with caution in the area, as slow moving manatees are often injured by boat propellers.

The sighting is rather unusual because manatees typically prefer warmer waters.  But while unusual, it isn’t the first time a manatee has been spotted in local waters. In fact, reports of sea creatures nicknamed Chessie go back as far as the early 1900s, but these were not confirmed to be manatees. A manatee, dubbed Chessie, was spotted in the Chesapeake Bay in 1980. The name “Chessie” is a playful reference to the Chesapeake Bay and is often used to describe the manatee sightings in that region. More sightings were reported in 1981, 1982, as well as 1994, 2001, 2006 and most recently 2014.

One of the more famous sightings of Chessie was in 2006 when a manatee was spotted swimming along the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The sighting generated considerable excitement, as it marked the first confirmed manatee in the bay in several years.

Manatees, often called “sea cows,” are large, slow-moving marine mammals that are typically found in warm coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and along the southeastern coast of the United States. While manatees have been spotted as far north as New England, their appearance in the Chesapeake Bay is quite rare and surprising due to our region’s colder waters.