Manatee spotted swimming in Waccamaw River near Conway marina

CONWAY, SC (WMBF) - A manatee was spotted swimming in the Waccamaw River near the Conway marina Thursday morning.

A video posted by Harlee Holtzclaw on Facebook showed the manatee swimming in the river by the Conway Outpost and Marina. The video has since gone viral.

Holtzclaw’s daughter spotted the manatee first and called her mother over to look.

“My 10-year-old said, ‘Mom, it’s a manatee!’ And my mom said ‘no way!’ Then my mom said ‘no, Harlee, something big and round just went under that pier!’” Holtzclaw said.

Holtzclaw said she thought her daughter was seeing an alligator or some other sea life. The manatee swam around the marina’s pier and boat ramp before heading back out into deeper waters.

Holtzclaw reported the sighting to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Manatees are spotted in South Carolina from late spring to fall as they migrate up from Florida. Last year, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources received 289 manatee sightings, an increase from past years.

“That doesn’t mean that there were, you know, 289 manatees; multiple reports can come in from the same animal,” said Kelly Lambert, a wildlife biologist with SCDNR.

While being upstream is uncommon for manatees, more have made their way to the Waccamaw region through connected waterways, according to SCDNR.

“A lot of our reports will come in from the southern part of the state because they like to hang out at marinas, you know, down, you know, at Shelter Cove and Harbor Town and places like that in the Hilton Head area,” Lambert said. “That being said, you know, manatees are still found in the northern part of the state.”

Lambert said the Waccamaw River sighting is rarer but not totally uncommon because of the area’s interconnected rivers and waterways.

According to SCDNR, manatees are able to live in both fresh and salt water and will hang around shallow areas like marinas to eat growing plants.

“So typically in our tidal creeks, they like to hang out in, also anywhere where there’s vegetation growing,” Lambert said. “So, you know, they’re known as sea cows. They’re constantly, typically eating at high tide. And then more resting at low tide.”

Any manatee sightings should be reported to SCDNR immediately, providing information on the location, time, and any video and photos of the sighting.

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