A “big boy” manatee was spotted this week in the Lafayette branch of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk. A viewer sent a video of the manatee to WAVY’s Report It! that shows it sticking its snout out of the water on Sunday.
While it’s not totally uncommon to see manatees in local waters in the summertime, this is the first official sighting since 2022, per Casey Shaw with the Elizabeth River Project. That’s when manatees were spotted in the Elizabeth River near Nauticus. That sighting happened just days after a manatee was spotted near the Newport News Seafood Industrial Park.
Brian Reese, WAVY-10
![](https://elizabethriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/21610-ERP_NOV-Ryan-Lab-Photography_66-300x200.jpg)