Sea Cows, Sculptures & Secrets: Celebrating World Manatee Day

Today is World Manatee Day—a perfect excuse to talk about one of our favourite gentle giants and the reason we donated a GIANT manatee masterpiece to the Crystal River Chamber of Commerce in Florida. 🐘💦

Ocean Sole USA team members Kai and Lara snorkel with a wild manatee in Crystal River—up close with the sea cow locals!

If you’ve never heard of Crystal River, it’s basically the winter getaway spot for manatees. These sweet, slow-moving sea cows flock there when the water gets cold because—fun fact—they can’t survive in chilly water. Manatees don’t have much body fat and can’t regulate their body temperature very well, so when it drops too low, they’re at serious risk of frostbite (yes, sea cows can literally get frostbite!).

Our colourful manatee sculpture now sits proudly in the Crystal River Welcome Center, greeting visitors and hopefully reminding them just how important it is to protect these vulnerable marine mammals.

Our giant manatee masterpiece arriving at its new home—Kai giving it a warm welcome (and a bit of a push) into the Crystal River Welcome Center.

Settled in and stealing the spotlight—our flip-flop manatee sculpture now greets visitors in Crystal River with colour and charm.

But let’s take a moment to talk about their lesser-known cousins… the dugongs.Similar? Yes.The same? Not quite. Manatees and dugongs are both members of the Sirenia family (aka sea cows), but they’ve gone their separate evolutionary ways. Manatees have paddle-like tails and live in both salt and freshwater. Dugongs, on the other hand, have fluked tails like dolphins and stick strictly to the sea.

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Fact Box: 🌍 Sea Cows Across the Seas

Did you know that Florida’s manatees and Africa’s manatees are distant cousins? The West Indian manatee (the one you’ll find chilling in Crystal River) shares a common ancestor with the West African manatee, and they both belong to the same family of sea cows. Scientists believe they evolved from the same ancient species millions of years ago and then went their separate ways—one group staying in Africa, and the other crossing the Atlantic and settling in the Americas. So in a way, manatees in the USA do have African roots!

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And guess what? Kenya has dugongs! Or rather… had.

There used to be dugongs in Kilifi Creek (can you imagine?!), and there’s a whisper of hope in the form of a secret little island further up the coast where a few still hang on. Dugongs are now one of the most endangered marine mammals in the Western Indian Ocean, and we’re in real danger of losing them entirely from Kenya’s waters.

So what do manatees, dugongs, and rainbow-coloured flip-flop art have in common?

They’re all part of a bigger story—a reminder that our oceans are full of magic, but that magic is fragile.

At Ocean Sole, we turn washed-up flip-flops into art, but more importantly, we turn awareness into action. Our manatee sculpture is more than a fun photo op in Florida—it’s a call to care. And now, we want to do the same for dugongs here in Kenya.

Lara repping Ocean Sole and our sea cow art at the Manatee Festival—spreading smiles, colour, and conservation!

Let’s bring the dugongs back.

Let’s protect the last few, restore their habitats, and make some noise for the silent swimmers of our sea grass beds.

Whether you're in Florida waving to manatees or walking the mangroves on Kenya’s coast—know that sea cows need you.

Happy World Manatee Day! 💙And to our elusive dugong friends—we haven’t forgotten you.

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