Floating among huge manatee sea cows feels so exciting and magically surreal. We’re privileged to enter their environment and grateful for decades of legal protections from all the people contributing to their survival. Manatees are quite gentle, curious herbivores so they won’t bite us but being in the open water with a leaky snorkel mask I could only use one arm to move and “no kicking allowed” as I did not want to break the rules much less drown. We were told to float: no swimming, touching, kicking, hugging nor grabbing manatees in the open water. No aquarium glass to safely separate us with nothing to hang on to. The wetsuit provided warmth, after the initial spinal cold shock losing 40 degrees, with buoyancy to float but no psychological protection against the unlikely concern of getting squeezed between an aggregation of manatees or rabid tourists.
We learned the males are rather aggressive to females, or at least persistent, during mating season and groups of males are known to pursue one female. Several manatee moved slowly in the translucent fresh spring water mixing into turbid sea water. They form groups laying and sleeping on the shallow bottom of limestone covered with mud at a depth of about 10 to 20 feet, occasionally coming up to the surface for air. “Don’t block their rise to the surface,” we were also told.
Every winter, thousands of manatees migrate south from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico along western Florida coastal waters. They aggregate where 72 deg. F (22 deg. C) spring water discharges at a constant temperature as well as in steam discharge canals at power plants. Approximately 70 springs in Florida’s west coast flow out of limestone rocks discharging 580 million gallons per day or 400,000 gallons per minute. At the town of Crystal River, 30 natural springs flow into Kings Bay creating headwaters for the seven-mile long Crystal River ultimately merging into the Gulf. Here’s an interesting publication by USGS indicating movement patterns of manatee within Kings Bay as water temperatures change. The highest density of manatee concentrate in the Three Sisters Springs area and next weekend the Manatee Festival is coming to this same area.
We visited the small town Crystal River just two days before Christmas and three months after Hurricane Milton’s (Category 3) storm surge, and Hurricane Helene (Category 4) two weeks before that, brought 5 to 10 feet of muddy water flooding the town so the area continues to recover. We saw rebuilt businesses, homes being renovated, and numerous road signs and sunken ships remaining. The storm damage also affects the manatee food supply. Strong winds, storm surges, and pounding waves can uproot seagrass or bury it in sediments. Manatees thrive on eating seagrass, known as Manatee grass, needing about 100 to 200 pounds per day!
The Paddletail Lodge Best Western Hotel close to the waterfront provided friendly overnight accommodations and meeting location for catching a sunset cruise, joined by a family from Australia, and an early morning float. Arriving at 7 am, the tour guide with Waterfront Adventures showed us this video produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on “Manatee Manners” showing beautiful images of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge with lots of rules to protect the manatees. A tour boat took three of us and another couple from India moving us within 15 minutes from shore to the refuge where large springs flow into the bay where we began our snorkel adventure.
Our experiences floating with the friendly manatee showed how interested they are in us and they seem to be able to sense when a person is staying calm and willing to get very close looking at us face to face. A male manatee, identified by the boat captain, followed our son back towards the boat making a natural connection.
We can support the region by visiting as tourists as well as contributing donations. Several non-profit organizations help to protect manatees including The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation and Save the Manatee Club which offers webcam videos.
I’d like to dedicate this blog to my friends King Stablein and David King, whom I thought about while visiting Kings Bay!