Every winter, many manatees make the Apollo Beach <\/a>sanctuary their temporary home, giving families a front row seat to see these animals up close. Jamie Woodlee has worked at the TECO Manatee Viewing Center for 26 years.<\/p>\n Manatee Viewing Center’s growth <\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n “It gives the public a way to learn about the manatees,” Woodlee said. “See them up close and then start to care about the manatees.”<\/p>\n The nearly 40-year-old attraction welcomed more than 500,000 visitors last season. Warm water flowing from the nearby TECO power plant attracts manatees throughout winter weather months.<\/p>\n “Everything\u2019s free as far as what you can do here,” Woodlee said. “We have trails, viewing platforms, a raised touch tank and an education building.”<\/p>\n Woodlee says the attraction has grown significantly since it first opened in 1986.<\/p>\n “It started out as one little viewing platform, a trailer on the ground,” Woodlee said. “It\u2019s become a lot more popular than they ever imagined.”<\/p>\n St. Pete Pier joins competition <\/p>\n Dig deeper:<\/p>\n Over the last two years, the TECO Manatee Viewing Center has finished runner-up in USA Today\u2019s annual competition. This year, however, the St. Pete Pier is also competing for the top title.<\/p>\n St. Pete resident Arian Cangas described the pier as a popular place for tourists and local families.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s a lot of things you can do here for free,” Cangas said. “It\u2019s a great place.”<\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n The St. Pete Pier reopened in 2020 and attracts roughly 2.3 million visitors annually. The waterfront attraction features restaurants, a beach area, playgrounds and opportunities to get a glimpse of marine life.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s a lot of wildlife because a lot of this pier is environmentally friendly,” Cangas said. “You see a lot of sea animals, sharks and dolphins all the time.”<\/p>\n Online voting continues <\/p>\n What you can do:<\/p>\n Voting for USA Today\u2019s best free attraction runs up until June 15. People can vote online here<\/a>, once per day.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story came from statements from USA Today, TECO and the city of St. Petersburg, interviews with an employee at the Manatee Viewing Center and St. Pete residents.<\/p>\n Tourism<\/a>Hillsborough County<\/a>St. Petersburg<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APOLLO BEACH, Fla. – Two Bay Area landmarks are gaining national recognition after being nominated in USA Today\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,629,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,1316,628],"class_list":["post-281715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tourism","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281715","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=281715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/teco-pic-5.22.jpg\")
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