Just last week, marketing director Karen Conner was excited when a staff member asked her if she had ever seen a manatee in the wild.

She ran outside, studied the water and was told to patiently wait for bubbles. Breaking through the surface of Mobile Bay, two manatees emerged close to the USS Alabama Battleship on Monday, Aug. 20.

The manatees swam around and would go underwater, sometimes staying underwater for up to 20 minutes, and would then come up for air and roll around, Conner said.

The staff contacted the Mobile Manatees hotline at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.

Conner said the manatees seemed to love a crowd, and she expected there may be an increase in sightseers.

“It’s very exciting as manatees are very mysterious, probably because they are not very visible,” Conner said.

Dr. Ruth Carmichael, who established the Mobile Manatees Program, is a senior marine scientist and assistant professor of marine science at the University of South Alabama.

She responded immediately after receiving the call.

Valuable data from the water where the manatees were spotted, including water salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration, was taken and repeated.

The data is helping to determine what is common about the habitats that manatees seek.

The Mobile Manatees group depends on the public to notify the group when they spot a manatee, Carmichael said.

So far, the group has received 60 manatee sighting calls since May 15, 2007. For part of the year, some manatees come to Mobile Bay to use for their “summer home,” Carmichael said. They typically stay in the southern part of the bay, along the periphery, and they tend to stay away from high boat traffic areas and seek out fresher water in the rivers, Carmichael added.

They also like to hang out where there is a good food supply, she said. While alligators can bother manatee calves, the two typically coexist.

Carmichael’s advice for people who spot manatees is to stay at least l00 feet away and items should not be thrown at them and manatees should never be touched, she said.

Manatees are an endangered species and any harassment or activity that would change the way they behave is a federal offense and governed under federal law, she said.

Manatees are able to take care of themselves, she said.

“The biggest predators for manatees are humans,” she said. “Just be content to observe them from a distance.”

For more information about manatees, contact Mobile Manatees at manatee.disl.org or call the Dauphin Island Sea Lab at 251-861-2141.