How a manatee gets her nails painted?

The answer, curiosity.
One morning I went out to look at the fish in the canal and there was a manatee drinking some water dripping off the dock. They are the cutest, ugliest, gentle creatures I know. This girl had some discoloration on her side and on her flipper's nails. I thought at first some illness might have befallen her but then, I realized it had to be paint! It was suspiciously similar in color to a sailboat moored in the bay that had just had a touch up of its paint job.
I scrubbed her a bit with a brush to get some of the paint off. She liked the morning massage. I saw her later in the afternoon when we were taking out the kayak for a spin in the bay. I can only suspect it was the same manatee wanting to come 'hang out' with us. Our kayak got nudged a few times by a manatee.