This month, The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature will be bidding a fond farewell to Slate, Obsidian and ONeil as we temporarily close The Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat to the public so that we can complete upgrades that cannot be done while we have animals in our care.

The Habitat will be closed starting on Aug. 21.

The manatees will be moving to other rehabilitation facilities to continue their care in advance of their return to the wild.

The work on The Habitat includes buffing the glass windows and applying a new epoxy coating to the floor in the behind-the-scenes care area and is expected to take several weeks. Until it is completed, manatee care staff will give live presentations about manatees in our Discovery Place Classroom and we will be offering guests a $3 discount on admission tickets.

The work is expected to be completed in mid-September.

The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature has been rehabilitating manatees since 1998 and was a founding partner of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership in 2001. This cooperative group includes nonprofit, private, state and federal organizations that study manatees and/or participate in manatee rescue and rehabilitation.

The Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat at The Bishop is a Stage 2 rehabilitation facility — the place where manatees come after their critical health needs have been taken care of. Its main tasks are bringing rehabilitating manatees, rescued as orphans, up to the right size and weight for release or, if the animals were sick or injured, allowing them to finish the healing process. Typically, animals remain at The Bishop anywhere from a few months to more than a year.

The Bishop has housed 38 rehabilitating manatees since 1998.