FLORIDA PLACE TO EXPLORE
Manatee Lagoon
Palm Beach County · South Florida & the Keys
A free center on the Intracoastal where manatees gather in the warm water a power station puts out, chiefly from mid-November to the end of March.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Manatee Lagoon sits beside Florida Power & Light's Riviera Beach Next Generation Clean Energy Center, and the manatees come for that plant's warm-water outflow rather than for anything the center itself provides. FPL built it shortly after modernizing the gas plant, as an education center rather than a rescue or rehabilitation facility, so the animals here are wild and nobody is keeping them. The gathering is seasonal and weather-driven: the likeliest days run from November 15 to March 31, when local water temperatures can drop below 68 degrees, and outside that window sightings are not reliable. Admission and parking are both free, and there is a waterfront observation deck, indoor exhibits and a live manatee cam for the days when the water is empty. Because the animals are wild and unmanaged, a visit is a gamble rather than a booking, and that is the honest way to put it: on a cold January morning after a front there may be dozens in the water, and on a mild day in the same month none at all. The exhibits and the observation deck are worth the stop either way
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