On December 2, 2008, the Mobile Manatees Sighting Network (MMSN) received a report from the National Marine Fisheries Service in Mississippi that a dead manatee was sighted in Bay St. Louis.  The manatee was sighted on November 28 on the eastern shore north of Highway 90, but the sighting remains uncorroborated. 

On November 11, 2008 a live manatee was sighted nearby in the Jordan River.  It is unknown whether this is the same animal.  MMSN is seeking information on sightings in Mississippi from Nov. 11-28 to help corroborate these reports.  If anyone has information, please contact MMSN at 1-866-493-5803 (toll-free), by email at manatee@disl.org, or online at http://manatee.disl.org

There has been an increase in the number of manatee sightings in recent years in coastal waters of Alabama and Mississippi, an area considered to be the outer limits of manatee habitat.  These sightings suggest the Alabama-Mississippi region may be an increasingly important spring and summer habitats for manatees. 

MMSN was launched in spring 2007 to provide a centralized location to report local manatee sightings and to investigate how manatees use fringe habitats.  To date, MMSN has received more than 200 reports of manatees in the region.