GENTLE GIANTS (Original Painting) Oil on Canvas 48 x 60 by Susan Andreasen

Highlights the West Indian manatee, focusing on threats from boat strikes and the species’ reclassification from endangered to threatened.

The West Indian or Florida Manatee (and sometimes called sea cow, is found primarily along the coast of Florida. Most adult manatees are about ten feet long and weigh 800 to 1,200 pounds, although some larger than 12 feet and weighing as much as 3,500 pounds have been recorded. But the largest problems facing the manatee are caused by man. Speeding boats run over many a manatee that are submerged just below the surface, killing them either by impact with the boast itself or by slicing into their backs with the propellers. Manatees that survive such encounters carry distinctive scars (in fact, biologists studying the manatee use the scars as ways to identify individual manatees). 

Manatees were originally listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act in 1973. The Fish and Wildlife Service announced its final rule downlisting the West Indian manatee from endangered to threatened in 2017.

Painting these animals was engaging, as they possessed their own style of life. Moving between the sunlight and rolling over for a piece of lettuce.  They are much larger in real life than expected. All ways going down for the grass on the bottom of the river to eat.