Sea Cow Kisses

I have been anxiously waiting for Thursday, 12/15, to arrive. We booked our excursion on Crystal River with Captain Mike’s Swim with the Manatees after reading about it on Howard & Linda’s (RV Dreams) blog. They’ve gone with this company twice (always a good sign!) AND we had the option of booking a 5-hour semi-private tour with a heated houseboat. Oh yeah! I’m in!

We were up at 5am and out the door shortly after 6 to make the 1½ hour drive to Crystal River. The boat leaves at 8am, but we needed to be there early enough to get fitted for our wetsuits and go through the mandatory safety and “don’t screw with the manatees” briefing. :)  One of the advantages of this tour, in addition to the heated boat (did I mention that? Lol), is that they take a maximum of 6 people. We picked a weekday, hoping to avoid crowds and ended up with the whole boat to ourselves. There were other tour companies also out and about, but no hordes of fellow noodle riding snorkelers - or noodle soup as Yves called it. :)

Captain Mike's - highly recommended!

So thankful for the option of a heated boat, even with a wet-suit my teeth were chattering!

Our Captain, Yves, (yes, he was French) was great. He went through all the mandatory briefings with humor and gave us lots of tips on how to interact with the manatees to get the best experience. He’d previously worked with a Manatee Research agency, so he was very knowledgeable and conservation minded and genuinely cared about the manatees, putting the welfare of the animals first. A huge plus in our book.

Manatees are currently on the endangered species list. With the designation comes federal restrictions on things like boat speed and waterfront development that are credited with protecting the species and reversing its decline. However, with their numbers on the rebound in Florida (up from about 1260 in 1991 to over 6000 today), there has been a decade-long battle to remove the manatee from the endangered species list. (Think housing developers and boaters who want the restrictions removed! Grrrrrrrr!) Most of the adults we saw had propeller scars, a common problem when fast motor boats and slow-moving manatees meet in the shallow waters. Captain Yves said that the laws really have helped and he sees fewer serious injuries, although enforcement is spotty at best and prosecution is non-existent.  

How could you not want to protect this face!

Crystal River is one of the few places where you are allowed to interact with the manatees. There are lots of “manatee sanctuary” areas roped off so the manatees always have a place to get some peace and quiet. The tour operators also do a good job of watching and curbing inappropriate behaviors.

Buoys mark the Manatee Sanctuary - no swimming, no boating, no bothering them!

I claim sanctuary! See the rope line above, he swam right to the line and stopped. Lol.

Our job was to be passive observers. The protocol is to float/swim quietly nearby and let the manatees come to us if they were interested. Some would ignore us entirely, others would swim away, but some would come over to check us out. You cannot image how exciting it is to have one of these adorable behemoths come over to investigate the dorky looking snorkelers.  Lol.

Hello.  What are you??

Oh, I see. You're wearing a dorkle. 

Wouldn't you want to check out this dork?? Lol. 

Rog had the best interaction of all when a youngster came up behind him and snurfled him and then smiled (or at least opened his mouth giving Rog a clear view of his gummy grin). Rog said you could feel his whiskers right through the wetsuit. Yes, I am insanely jealous and want to be snurfled too! Lol.

They adults are just huge.

I swear he's smiling!

Some Manatee Fun Facts: Although manatees are often called “sea cows”, they are actually most closely related to elephants. There isn’t much of a family resemblance, but it does help explain their size. They are BIG. Adults grow to 13 feet long and weigh up to 1200 pounds! They are gentle giants, however.  They have no teeth to bite with (only molars for grinding vegetation), no claws, and not an aggressive bone in their bodies. Even cows with calves are not aggressive and will just move away from something that disturbs them. They are herbivores with no natural predators which probably accounts for their laid-back disposition. The adults are pretty mellow, but the juveniles can be curious.

Mom with her calf.

The manatees are fully aquatic mammals and will surface for air every couple minutes when swimming, but can stay submerged for 15-20 minutes when they are just resting on the bottom. They graze a lot, eating up to a tenth of their body weight in sea grass and vegetation every day. They also need warm water and will get sick if they remain in temps under 68˚F for very long. That is why they love to hang out in the 72˚ Florida spring water in the winter!

Going up for air.

The only small ding on our day was that the water clarity wasn’t that great. So the pictures leave a little to be desired. The manatees are so huge that to get all of them in the picture, you have to back up so far that it’s hard to get a clear shot in murky water. That aside, this is a must do if you ever get a chance. It’s quite a thrill to be floating along and suddenly realize that you’re directly above a huge gray algae covered ele-cousin who is turning to look at you! So awesome!

The barnacles are a sign this guy has spent a good deal of time in the salt water.

We have some kayaking planned here on Cedar Key and Saturday night we hope to see the boat parade and Santa Clam! Lol. If the weather holds on Sunday, we might try to take the kayaks to Manatee State Park. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and get snurfled by an affectionate sea cow. Lol.