A rare visitor from the south has a lot of people talking in Belmar this week after a manatee took up residence in the Shark River.  

It was a Saturday morning Harry Conover and his dad won’t soon forget as they watched in disbelief at a manatee silently gliding through the lagoon near Shark River Inlet in Belmar.

"I went out on Shark River to get bait with my dad and low and behold, we come across a 12-foot manatee. I said to my dad 'There's a manatee.' He said, 'No way!' and I said 'Look!' and there it was, going along the bulkhead, along the docks, and it was just absolutely incredible," said Harry Conover.

They were the first to report the sighting to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.  

Hours later, it was at the dock next to Josh Vallario’s backyard.  

“I saw this brown thing in the water and I thought it was a garbage can from one of the neighbors that blew in,” said Vallario.  

“It was the coolest thing we’ve ever seen. You can’t miss a manatee. They are the gentle cows of the ocean. Just gentle, giant creatures,” Vallario said.  

Keeping an eye on this manatee are the experts from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine.  

“It’s not unheard of anymore. These guys do make their way up north,” said Jay Pagel, the stranding coordinator at the center.  

“In our history, we’ve physically handled only five of these animals, and we’ve been doing this since the late 70s,” he said.  

Because of the creature’s size and slow movement, one of the leading causes of deaths in the wild is by boat strikes. With that, the center wants boaters to stay alert in the area.  

“Biggest thing they can do is just give it plenty of room, plenty of space, don’t feed it, water it and if you’re on a boat just basically slow down,” said Pagel.  

For now, the center will continue to monitor the manatee. If it sticks around as the water cools, they may send a relocation team. The hope is the manatee will find its way back out the inlet and hang a hard right in the ocean, south to Florida.  

“When I built the house, I always told the kids we would see a lot of cool wildlife in the backyard,” said Vallario.  

Now the Vallario family can add manatees to their growing list of backyard sightings.  

If you happen to see the manatee, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center wants people to take a photo of it and contact them right away with the location.