South Carolina’s manatee records cluster in warm, plant-rich estuarine waters along the coast, especially near ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, and the tidal creeks around Hunting Island State Park. These are the slow, vegetated waterways manatees seek out as they range up the coast from Florida.
Manatees graze on submerged and floating aquatic plants, using their paddle-like flippers to pull vegetation toward a mouth built for grinding. Because they can’t tolerate cold water for long, the ones that show up in South Carolina are summer visitors rather than year-round residents, following warm water north and drifting back south before winter sets in.
Records rise through late spring and peak in the warmest summer months, then drop off sharply by fall. That pattern fits a seasonal visitor rather than an animal that dens or breeds in South Carolina, and the records mark movement through the state’s waterways, not a resident population.
