What is a manatee?

"The West Indian Manatee is a large gray-brown aquatic mammal. Its seal-like body tapers to a flat, paddle-shaped tail. The upper part of its body has two small forelimbs with three-to-four nails on each flipper. The head and face are wrinkled and the snout has stiff whiskers. Adults have been known to reach lengths of over 13 feet and weights of over 3,000 pounds. Calves are three-to-four feet long and 60-to-70 pounds at birth. Manatees spend most of their time feeding and resting. They graze for food along rivers, coastal bottoms and at the water's surface. Manatees have been known to hold their breath for as long as 20 minutes, but they usually surface about every five minutes to breathe. The West Indian manatee is an endangered species and is protected by state and federal law. Please avoid harassing or disturbing manatees. Harassment is defined as any activity which alters the animal's natural behavior. By altering the manatee's natural behavior, you may create the likelihood of danger that is bad for the animal and against the law." (Text from State of Florida)

Todd and Wendy swim with the manatees

Last summer we went to Rainbow Springs to swim its caves and clear-water currents. American Pro Dive Shop in Crystal River provides tours to most local springs, so we went back there this year for our manatee trip. Crystal River is both a river and a city located about 90 minutes north of Tampa on the Gulf Coast. We arrived at 9:00am and went with about 11 other people on a pontoon boat up the river about five miles to a State of Florida manatee sanctuary. Because they are highly endangered, we believe that anytime now the state will ban all tours and human contact. (This year is rumoured by many to be the last year you can legally do what we did, but let's hope the manatees recover and tours continue.)

S

(Photos so far: That's Wendy getting into her wetsuit, and her standing on the bow of the pontoon boat talking with a tourist from up north. That's also Wendy swimming along the surface (notice her pink mask and grey-striped wetsuit  in each of the other photos). The next photo is one mother/baby pair--murky, but you get an idea of how big the mother was when you compare it to the baby photos which follow.)
 

Manatees come to the river head (and the sanctuary) when it's cold outside (the river head being warmer than the Gulf). However, they return to the Gulf each morning to eat, so the best place to spot them is between those two points. At the beginning of our trip we saw several mother/baby pairs, with the mothers being the 3,000 pounders and the babies being 3-6 feet long (about 500 pounds). Those pairs were enroute to somewhere, and the law doesn't allow us to follow them, so we watched as they swam past. The water is only 5-10 feet deep, although it's very murky, so twice we literally stumbled onto a swimming pair, having to duck out of the way as the 3,000 pound mother's tail paddle pushed past. That freaked Wendy out just a little, but the manatees are extremely gentle and I've heard few stories of anyone being hurt by the tails.

After moving the boat downstream a hundred yards, our guide spotted three manatees swimming slowly along the bottm, grazing. Wendy and I were ahead of the other people and managed to swim alongside a mother/baby pair as they grazed the 5-foot-deep bottom. I swam next to (and touched) the mother, but the 13-foot-long behemoth kept Wendy back at a respectable distance. After the pair swam off, Wendy and I headed back upstream looking for more, and I noticed that three of our divemates were tightly clustered off one side of the boat.

(Next photos: That's a baby with one of our divemates, and then a full-length shot of Wendy and a 6-foot-long baby manatee. You can see the manatee's paddle tail.)

We soon discovered that they were playing with a very curious three-year-old manatee about six feet long (about 500 pounds). It spent the next thirty minutes nuzzling, eyeing, and rolling over for each member of our group. We each got several chances to scratch its head, rub its stomach (it especially liked that), and feel its tail paddle. As you can see in the next photo (of Wendy and a cross-section of the manatee's middle), the manatee is covered head-to-tail with algae and moss, and it LOVED it when we scratched some of that moss off its back.

The manatee also seemed to LOVE the guide's video camera. He would swim over to the camera, nuzzle it, then roll over and swim away, only to return again for another look. The video is cool, and shows Wendy and me interacting with the manatee.

In case you're wondering about the wetsuits, they're for cold (supposedly) and buoyancy (as many of the tourists are new to snorkeling). After thirty minutes or so, I got back onto the boat and ditched the wetsuit, swimming again with the manatee in just my swimsuit. The water was about 75-degrees and felt pretty good.

So go swim with the manatees! The links below give you more information about how to arrange a trip. The price is reasonable (it's about $40 per person for a half-day, including all equipment and food). The manatees are in the river from December through March, after which they head back into the Gulf for the warmer months.
 

For more information on manatees, click here.

For more information about the Crystal River area (or Citrus County), click here.

Credit: The photo at the top (blue, two manatees, diver visible) is © Francois Fournier (352)563-3480, used by permission.

Updated 13JAN2000
Copyright Frog Prints

HOME