Dear Colleagues, My coauthors and I are excited to share our recent, open-access publication in the Latin American Journal of Aquatic Mammals Special Issue on the Biology and Conservation of Manatees. Our paper explores the factors affecting the probability of detecting an Amazonian manatee using an occupied aerial vehicle, or drone, at an ex situ study site, where the number of manatees present is controlled. It also estimates the minimum survey effort, including the number of repeat surveys and the time-to-detection, required to reliably detect manatees present at the study site and under the observed conditions. Based on the results, we suggest various ways UAVs can be used to study Amazonian manatees, both independently and in conjunction with existing methods and other technologies. Citation: Farinelli, S., Keith-Diagne, L., Garnica, J., Keiman, J. ., & Luther, D. (2024). Quantifying minimum survey effort to reliably detect Amazonian manatees using an unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) at an ex situ soft-release site. Latin American Journal of Aquatic Mammals, 19(1), 42-60. https://doi.org/10.5597/lajam00319. The article can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.5597/lajam00319 The Special Issue can be accessed here: https://www.lajamjournal.org/index.php/lajam/issue/view/53 Please feel free to contact me at sfarinelli@cmaquarium.org<mailto:sfarinelli@cmaquarium.org> with any questions. Best, Sarah Sarah Farinelli, PhD Postdoctoral Marine Mammal Scientist Mobile 703-628-5915 Email sfarinelli@cmaquarium.org<mailto:sfarinelli@cmaquarium.org> Website www.CMAResearchInstitute.org<http://www.cmaresearchinstitute.org/>