The manatee photo identification project begins to scale manatee conservation efforts in the country. One of the biggest challenges during the census was finding identification marks on Caribbean manatees to differentiate them (and exclude double sightings), as they do not usually have boat marks or other relevant injuries, and details must be found on their tail, or specific points on your body, which requires a high image resolution. Therefore, photo identification should be carried out as an independent project, dedicating several days to each population where the focus is on identification.

Unfortunately, in the national census we discovered that there are about 110 manatees left in the country. This figure is alarming, but it is still enough to maintain and save a healthy population with a diverse gene pool. In order to register and protect them, it is of utmost importance to know each of these individuals. By expanding the public photo ID database, we can raise more awareness about wild manatee populations. Proof of this were the results of the release of the three captive manatees “Pepe, Juanita and Lupita” in 2021, where the public was much more aware of and affected by the personal “stories” of those named individual manatees.

Therefore, strengthening the database and having publicly available information on individual manatees will help create a link between Dominicans and these highly endangered animals. In addition, it will provide more concrete data that will be presented to the Dominican Ministry of the Environment to demand reinforcement of the protection of key habitats.