Spotting a manatee in the Chesapeake is rare but not uncommon, and we may see more in the future. You may remember the sensation in 1994 when a male West Indian manatee was spotted in the Chesapeake Bay, which earned him the name “Chessie.” After being tagged by USGS, his northward travels along the East Coast fascinated scientists and provided new information about manatee spatial use. He was tagged the following season, too, but that tag and all subsequent tags fell off. Seventeen years later, Chessie was again spotted in the Chesapeake Bay, and then in 2021, he was rescued for emaciation during the manatee Unusual Mortality Event along the east coast of Florida. Chessie was again fitted with a GPS satellite tag, this time by Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute (CMARI). This tag data from Chessie and other tagged manatees deepens our understanding of their movements, behavior, and habitat selection. In this talk, we’ll learn about manatees and check in on Chessie with Julia Courville from CMARI.