The Antillean subspecies, Trichechus manatus manatus, of the West Indian manatee belongs to the order Sirenia of which there are only 4 extant species in 2 families. The West Indian manatee, T. manatus, the West African manatee, T. senegalensis, and the Amazonian manatee, T. inunguis, are members of the family Trichechidae. The dugong, Dugong dugon, is the only surviving member of the family Dugongidae (Reynolds and Odell 1991). Steller's sea cow, Hydrodamalis gigas, is also in the family Dugongidae, but the species was extirpated by humans in 1768 just 27 years after it's discovery in the North Pacific (Stejneger 1887).
About the same time as Steller's sea cow was being hunted to extinction by Russian explorers, European buccaneers were exploiting the Antillean manatee. Fortunately, the manatee population in the Caribbean was much larger than the sea cow populations of Bering and Copper Islands - enabling the Antillean manatee to survive early exploitation. Belize has been protecting manatees in her waters since the 1930s. As a result, Belize may be the "last stronghold" for the Antillean manatee in the Caribbean (O'Shea and Salisbury 1991). A strong national interest in manatee conservation is evidenced by the efforts of the National Manatee Researcher, Nicole Auil, who has been conducting manatee research in Belize since 1996 through the UNDP/GEF Coastal Zone Management Project. The National Manatee Working Group (NMWG) has been created to advise governmental agencies and NGOs on manatee conservation, research, and related ecotourism. The Belize Manatee Recovery Plan was published in 1998. Additional manatee research in Belize includes work by Dr. James A. Powell in Southern Lagoon and Greg Smith in the Basil Jones area of Ambergris Caye.
