Manatees are primarily herbivores that eat a wide variety of aquatic vegetation. Their diet includes submerged, emergent, floating, and shoreline plants. Common foods for manatees, especially those in Florida, include seagrasses such as turtle grass, manatee grass, and shoal grass, as well as mangrove leaves, various algae, water hyacinth, acorns, hydrilla, and other freshwater plants like water lettuce and alligator weed

. Manatees consume a large amount of vegetation daily, typically eating about 4% to 9% of their body weight in wet plants, which can amount to 100-200 pounds per day. They spend up to seven or eight hours a day grazing on these plants

. They use their large, flexible, split upper lips and front flippers to grasp and manipulate plants, pulling them into their mouths. Their mouths have ridged pads and molars that help break down and grind the fibrous vegetation

. Although manatees are mainly herbivores, some have been observed occasionally eating small animals like fish or clams, likely incidentally or opportunistically, but this is rare and not a significant part of their diet

. In summary, manatees eat mostly aquatic plants such as seagrasses, algae, and freshwater vegetation, grazing extensively to meet their nutritional needs