Caribbean Manatee Conservation Center — Attraction in Bayamón

We did the "caretaker for a day" tour, which was very informative and super fun. Adriana was really nice and friendly, she always made sure the informations were clear to us, and had fun anecdotes to share. Plus, she took the time to take a lot of pictures of us which we really appreciated !

After giving us information about manatees as a species and showing us the center (the hallway with instructional material, the kitchen where volunteers prepare the lettuce and fruits for the manatees, and the lab where they treat the animals), Adriana had us prepare some lettuce (mostly cutting off the nasty parts to keep 5 kilos of "clean" lettuce), then we went to feed the manatees in their pool.

I read some comments about how the center is small, how visitors cannot touch the animals, how you have to book in advance and then stand up for an hour listening to instructions and informations. People, this is not SeaWorld ! The teams does an actual work here, treating manatees, turtles, birds etc. and getting them ready to go back in the wild. It's science and care. Your tour guide is taking time out of their important job to share their passion with you. The tours are a way to get fundings, and to educate the public about the different species the team takes care of. Of course you cannot swim with a manatee and pet a turtle, the point is for the animals to go back into the wild and avoid human contact.

I would 100% recommend booking any of the tours the Center offers if you are genuinely interested in learning about manatees. Don't book it if your goal is to impress your 4-year old kid on their birthday.

Thank you again to everyone who works at the Conservation Center and congratulations on what you are doing ! You should all be really proud...

I should preface this review by noting that I absolutely love manatees and planned my trip to line up with when the center reopened following COVID restrictions. That said, I couldn’t recommend this experience enough. Our group signed up for the manatee caretaker for a day experience (it’s not really a day… only 2- 2 ½ hours) and it was a wonderful experience. At the time we visited, they had three adorable manatee calves, resident adult Guacara, and a menagerie of other animals. Just the chance to be so close to manatee calves is a once and a lifetime experience that I won’t forget and it is topped by the opportunity to help prepare the food and feed Guacara (an interaction that understandably isn’t permitted for non-resident manatees for their safety and security and is incredibly rare to find). Because of some of the efforts to help with Guacara’s veterinary care, we also got to see his gigantic personality (like putting his nostrils at the surface of the water to get food after learning the behavior for COVID tests).

I’ve seen past reviews complain about the price, but this isn’t a large, commercialized excursion. It is a tour at a small research and conservation center where we got the chance to learn about their work and see the animals under their care. The individuals working at the center clearly put time and effort into the visit. More importantly, the money that you are spending is going back to care for the wonderful animals we met. I’d pay for this experience any day over giving my money to a large, commercialized excursion – it’s educational, unique, and certainly worth the drive...

Saturday , I was lucky enough to visit the Puerto Rico Manatee conservation center . This non profit organization ,that is mainly run by volunteers , rescues and rehabilitates orphaned or injured manatees . When an animal is found it is transferred to the center where a full veterinary exam is performed . The animal is then nursed back to health until it can survive on it's own before being released . A minimum of 2 years is required before an orphaned manatee can be released. The ultimate objective is releasing the animal back into the wild. The steps include: weaning the animals from milk to an herbivorous diet one year before their release ;Three months before the big day arrives, there is a progressive acclimation to salt water ; From there, the manatees are released into a sea pen with sea grasses to eat to help them become used to living on their own. Following their release from the sea pen, the manatees are then monitored for one year via radio tracking.Do not miss out on this visit and remember they run on donations! I would love to...