Profanatee Manatee: The Mascot for Springs Defenders

5 hours ago
3 min read

Florida’s Springs are in trouble, and the manatees have had quite enough of this polluting, over-developing and over-pumping nonsense.

Let us take a moment to introduce you to our favorite FSC staff member.

He’s been at all our events and has quite the fan club online.

It's our Profanatee Manatee.

IT STARTED WITH A PERMIT.

Back in 2021, the Florida Springs Council challenged the permit allowing Seven Springs Water Company to pump nearly one million gallons of water a day from Ginnie Springs to sell to Blue Triton (formerly Nestle) for bottling.

When people found out that a bottled water operation was exploiting a spring to make a profit, they were, and still are, really really angry. Florida's springs are already suffering, and seeing spring water packaged into plastic bottles and shipped away is, sadly, just one pillar of Florida’s broken water management system.

IT GREW OUT OF A PARTNERSHIP WITH OLD FLORIDA VIBES.

In 2023, Hunter Turner, the incredible artist and advocate behind Old Florida Vibes, came to us with an idea. It was bold. It was attractive. It was funny. Little did we know it was exactly what we needed to grow the springs conservation movement and build a community of Springs Defenders ready to tell their friends to stop buying bottled spring water and support the Florida Springs Council’s legal challenge against the Seven Springs bottling permit.

Hunter brought us an Angry Manatee saying “Bottle This.” It was perfect.

We imagined if manatees could talk they’d tell us they’re angry and fed-up with the state of our springs. Between the pollution and overpumping, manatees’ winter sanctuaries are unrecognizable. And, it’s up to us to clean up this mess.

So, we took the design to LVR Ink, a local screen-printer in Alachua County, and he brought our Angry Manatee to life on t-shirts. Then, we were seeing and bringing him all around town—stickers on cars, t-shirts on UF campus, pint glasses at breweries, and even real tattoos.

IT’S STILL MAKING WAVES.

Statistics don't always make people stop scrolling. The Profanatee manatee did. People laughed. They talked about him. They pointed him out at events.

And then they asked the questions we hoped they'd ask:

"Why is the manatee so angry?"

“Is he actually doing what I think he is?”

“Do you know what it looks like he’s doing?”

That simple question opened the door to conversations about bottled spring water, harmful water use permits, groundwater withdrawals, spring ecology, and why manatees depend on healthy springs as warm-water refuges.

What began as a fun way to embody our feelings toward a water use permit has transformed into a sort of mascot for the Florida Springs Council and the springs conservation movement.

The Profanatee Manatee is now a conversation-starter, a fundraiser, an educator. He’s a reminder of why we fight to protect and restore our Florida Springs.

During the State Parks debacle in 2024 (when our state leaders unsuccessfully tried to turn our public lands into hotels and golf courses), Old Florida Vibes gave our favorite little manatee guy a face lift and a new purpose, telling our reckless state leaders to “Develop This.”

From Bottle This to Develop This, our profanatee manatee has opened avenues for us to connect with and inspire Springs Advocates.

FIND OUR PROFANATEE MANATEE IN THE WILD.

Get your Profanatee Manatee gear online or come to one of our in-person events. He’s on stickers, magnets, hats, socks and more. Your purchase benefits the Florida Springs Council's work to restore Florida's springs & waterways.

The manatees appreciate it.