Tampa Electric’s Manatee Viewing Center<\/a> in Apollo Beach is closing for the season at 5 p.m. Wednesday as the temperatures begin to rise this time of year.<\/p>\nManatee Season starts on Nov. 1, which is around the time Gulf waters cool during the winter, causing the warm-blooded animals to make their way to the clean, warm water discharge of TECO’s Big Bend Power Station.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the spring season underway and temperatures getting warmer, the manatees will be going back to rivers, canals and nearshore waters.<\/p>\n
“Our discharge canal is a state and federally designated manatee sanctuary that provides critical protection from the cold for these unique, gentle animals,” TECO’s website reads.<\/p>\n
If you decide to make one last-minute trip, you can enjoy the center’s viewing platform, education center, cafe and golf carts that transport guests from the remote parking lot. There is also a touch tank with stingrays and a nature trail leading to a 50-foot observation tower.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to TECO, manatees have flocked to the canal by the power station since the early 1970s, once the water temperature in Tampa Bay drops to 68 degrees or cooler.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Our discharge canal is a state and federally designated manatee sanctuary that provides critical protection from the cold for these unique, gentle animals,” TECO’s website states.<\/p>\n
Each season, the center draws nearly 400,000 visitors for a total of more than 7 million.<\/p>\n
It is a three-time winner of USA Today’s 10Best Readers\u2019 Choice travel awards<\/a> for best free attractions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The viewing center is open throughout Manatee Season from Nov. 1 to April 15. APOLLO BEACH, Fla. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-231695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}