I Heart Manatees

About this board game

I Heart Manatees is a tile-laying conservation game for 2–4 players that takes about 40 minutes to play. Each player builds a personal manatee habitat, rescues manatees from the ocean, and fills the habitat with food and fishy friends to score points.

On your turn, take the bottommost tile from one of four columns on the game board and add it to your habitat. Match the half-symbols—or the absence of symbols—on adjacent tiles. Completing breeding, swim, food, or other symbols can provide bonuses and points as your habitat develops.

• Breed: Add a manatee to your starting tile, plus more for completed breeding symbols.
• Move: Shift manatees between tiles, earning additional movement from completed swim symbols.
• Take a photo: Claim an available card for immediate points or end-game scoring by meeting its condition.
• Sabotage: Move the bull shark into another player’s empty tile, then resolve the shark die by stealing a manatee or placing an extra tile.

Movement requires careful planning: manatees cannot pass through one another or the bull shark, and every tile except the starting tile can hold only one manatee. Your starting tile can hold up to four manatees, giving you room to grow your rescued population.

The game ends after a player takes a fifth photo card or the last manatee leaves the supply. Everyone gets one final turn, then each manatee scores 1 point for every completed food symbol next to it. Add these habitat points to your photo points to determine the winner. With its colorful tile placement, set conditions, movement puzzles, and playful shark interference, I Heart Manatees makes conservation a competitive challenge.