Save Manatees Forever First Class Postage Stamps

A West Indian manatee drawn in stylized aqua tones, lolling near the surface the way they actually spend most of their time. The species is threatened, and the two things that decide its future are both human: motorboat strikes, and whether the shallow-water plants it feeds on survive. An adult eats up to a tenth of its own body weight in vegetation a day, so the plants are not a side issue. Florida's rivers and warm springs hold them year-round, and their range runs out into the coastal Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Gulf.

The stamp was issued to put that in front of people, and it gets used accordingly - wildlife trusts and rescue centers on donor mail, Florida businesses and tourism offices, science teachers, anyone writing about water policy. It also holds up as an ordinary stamp, since a manatee is hard to dislike. Booklets of 20, self-adhesive, and the aqua palette sits better on a kraft envelope than on a white one.