The Manatee Viewing Center’s mission is to educate the public about the Florida manatee and its habitat. The center is a state and federally designated manatee sanctuary. During the center’s open season, Nov. 1 through April 15, displays, interactive exhibits and more teach visitors of all ages about the life cycle of the manatee and the challenges it faces. Center volunteers and staff, many of them TECO Energy retirees, answer questions and provide additional educational information.
The Manatee Viewing Center gets its name from the fact that visitors get to view manatees that gather in the clean, warm water discharge canal between the Big Bend Power Station and the center when the temperature of Tampa Bay falls below 68 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition to the manatee observation platforms, the center features a tidal walkway that takes visitors deep into a mangrove habitat. Hundreds of varieties of birds, fish and other animals thrive here amid native coastal vegetation. The center also features an environmental education building, an expanded gift shop, the South Shore Café, webcams during the center’s open season and more.
Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Power Station in Apollo Beach delivered reliable electricity to the community for 16 years before the commercial operation of Big Bend Unit 4 in 1986. That year, people started seeing manatees in large numbers in the power station’s discharge canal, where saltwater – taken from Tampa Bay to cool Unit 4 – flowed, clean and warm, back to the bay. When Tampa Bay reached 68 degrees or colder, the warm-blooded mammals would seek out this new refuge. The Manatee Viewing Center was soon born.
Since its inception, the Manatee Viewing Center has grown from a collection of observation platforms into a 50-acre facility that has attracted more than three million visitors since it opened. Supporting Tampa Electric’s Renewable Energy program, the Manatee Viewing Center is home to a 23.8-kilowatt installation of solar power.
The Manatee Viewing Center is located at 6990 Dickman Road in Apollo Beach, Florida. You may make group reservations online and call the center’s automated line at 813-228-4289 for center information.
