They can reach speeds of 15 miles per hour but generally cruise at around 5 miles per hour. Keeping the flippers at its sides, its tail strokes up and down, propelling the animal forward. The flippers are quite useful, helping it steer, and when in shallow water, the manatee uses its flippers to walk on the bottom. The calves of the manatee are born underwater. Immediately after birth the mother helps the newborn reach the surface of the water for air.
Manatees can stay submerged for up to fifteen minutes.
If active they must come to the surface every five minutes. The calf weighs between twenty-five and sixty pounds at birth and swimming within one hour. Manatees feed on plants that grow in the water like water weeds, sea grasses, and algae. In one 24 hour period a manatee can eat as much as one pound of food for every 10 pounds of its body weight. The Future of the Manatee.