Belize 2026

In May 2026, Jacob returned to Belize for CMARI Belize Manatee Health Assessments, based in Placencia. The work is the same research pattern as Belize 2025: locate animals in safe shallow water, complete a timed health exam, and release them. The team avoided mother-and-calf pairs when a capture would add stress.

Jamal Galves led the season. Mentors on the boats again included Glenford Guy, Dr. Adrienne Adkins, Dr. Bob Bonde, and other named scientists.

One morning started with dolphins near the boat. While searching a mangrove channel, the boats encountered a swarm of bees; Glenford Guy and another volunteer helped a man who had gone into the water. Glenford was stung once.

Assessments that week included healthy males and a 903 lb female named Celeshia, after Jamal Galves’s wife.

On the 2025 trip, Jacob had learned to watch the clock by hand: if a manatee went more than about a minute without a breath, the team stimulated respiration. For 2026 he brought a phone app he built so that watch is a tap, a log, and an audible alert when a minute passes with no breath. He field-tested it on May 25 during two male exams. The full story of how it works is The manatee breath tracker. This site does not claim the app is listed in an app store.

After the last assessment day, Glenford Guy took the group scuba diving — a two-tank dive at Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve. Dr. Adrienne Adkins continued teaching manatee health between the water days.

These weights, names, and procedures are from the 2026 trip. They are not population statistics. CMA’s Belize manatee page and NOAA publish the public science and rules.

What came next at the aquarium is on Volunteering at CMA.