Manatee Tours in Belize

Carol Luther, Leaf Group

Belize, the only English-speaking country in Central America, also has the region's largest concentration of manatees by the count of the United Nations Environment Programme. Belize City visitors have to travel no more than seven miles to view these huge, docile creatures in their natural habitat within the Northern Lagoon. Belize visitors can observe manatees in offshore locales like Caye Caulker, the country's marine reserves and remote rural villages near the coast.


The largest coral reef in the western hemisphere and extensive mangrove swamps are two of the reasons that manatees visit Belize's shoreline. The country's network of rivers and lagoons, protected in part by the reef, provide fertile feeding grounds and shelter for these mammals. The manatee population roams along Belize's entire coast. These aquatic, vegetarian mammals can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds, according to Lonely Planet. The UNEP reports that manatees in Belize number fewer than 1,000, but the population's birth rate and cub survival rate is relatively stable and comparable to the population of Florida's Crystal River area.

Protected Areas

As of 2010, Belize had three protected manatee areas: The Northern Lagoon offers the Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary near Belize's border with Mexico and the Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary a few miles from Belize City. The Gales Point Manatee Wildlife Sanctuary is in the Southern Lagoon area.

Northern Lagoon Offshore Tours

Transitions Abroad recommends Caye Caulker, an offshore island, for its low-impact, eco-friendly tour setting. Reach the island by boat and get around by bike or golf cart. Red Mangrove Eco Adventures has all-day manatee viewing tours that take guests to Swallow Caye Marine Reserve, with snorkeling stops at Caye Caulker Marine Reserve. Tour guests may photograph manatees from the boat, but the tour operator does not allow human and manatee contact due to the risk of damage to the manatees' skin.

Southern Lagoon Tours

A trip by boat or car from Belize City to the Southern Lagoon's Gales Point Wildlife Sanctuary takes you to a remote, mostly rural area. The Manatee Lodge has tour guides that take visitors in a boat to a warm freshwater spring where the manatee feed on mangrove and sea grass. Farther south, you can see manatees in the Placencia Lagoon, formed by a narrow 16-mile long peninsula that contains three small villages. To see the lagoon's manatees and dolphins, take the Monkey River & Jungle Tour. It leaves from Placencia village at the southern tip of the peninsula and travels 12 miles down the lagoon to Monkey River Town.


Increased tourism and development have had some negative effects on Belize's manatee populations. The main problems are gill fishing net entrapment and destruction of mangrove beds for housing construction. Collisions with manatees also occur more frequently as tour operators switch from traditional low power canoes to increasingly larger craft with high power motors. The Belize government, community-based organizations and the US Fish and Wildlife service have joined forces to conduct education campaigns to increase awareness of these threats.