The Manatee Viewing Center Is Open Again in Apollo Beach: A 40th Season, Still Free, and Best After a Cold Front
One of Tampa Bay's best free days out reopened Sunday: Tampa Electric's Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach is back for its 40th winter season, with free admission and parking, rays that now live there year-round, and a new turtle habitat - though the manatee crowds wait for colder water.
Apollo Beach's winter season has officially started. Tampa Electric's Manatee Viewing Center reopened Sunday, November 1, for its 2026-27 season - the attraction's 40th - and admission and parking remain free. The center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through April 15, closing only for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, and at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
The manatees come for the plumbing. Since the early 1970s, manatees have gathered in the warm-water discharge canal at TECO's Big Bend Power Station when the water in Tampa Bay drops to 68 degrees or colder - sometimes hundreds at a time. On one especially cold day last season, TECO counted a record 2,100 manatees in the canal, which is a state and federal manatee sanctuary; about 190 documented manatees have been returning for more than 20 years, and one for more than four decades. The practical tip follows from the science: the best viewing is the morning after a cold front, not a warm November afternoon like today's, when only a few may be around.
There is new stock to see even before the cold arrives. The cownose rays in the touch tank now live at the center year-round instead of being moved each summer, there is a freshwater turtle habitat with underwater viewing, public access to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's fish hatchery, a shaded shelter at the tram stop and solar-powered charging tables. The nature trail, the 50-foot observation tower and the environmental exhibits are all still there.
