Photographs of individual manatees are used to maintain a statewide manatee identification computerized database called the MIPS "Manatee Individual Photo-Identification System." The MIPS was developed by the US Geological Survey (USGS) in the 1980s to provide data to assess the recovery of manatee populations. S2S is working with USGS to maintain this long term database in several areas around the state. We know from the database that some of the manatees Dr. James "Buddy" Powell first photographed in Crystal River during his studies in the 1970s still use the river and have been sighted as far away as Alabama and Cuba.