Swimming with the Manatees

by , Ashland County, OH

March 2003 Braegen, East Central Ohio Mensa Newsletter
Karen B. Bujak, Editor

Have you ever noticed that slogan “Save the Manatee” seen on some Florida license plates?  I really didn’t pay much attention to it, until I recently took a dive/snorkel trip to the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge in Florida north of Tampa.  Manatees are an endangered species and Crystal River is the only place where humans are still permitted to swim with them.  It is a fantastic experience! 

Manatees are gentle, lovable creatures and they are normally quite timid.  Manatees are so ugly that they become irresistibly cute!  The West Indian Manatee, commonly called the Sea Cow, is an air-breathing mammal typically weighing between 1200-2000 pounds when fully grown.  The manatee is a relative of the elephant with the same gray color.  A strict vegetarian, this gentle creature could not defend itself even if it had to.  They have no natural enemies, except stupid people.  Virtually all manatees, even the babies, have propeller scars on their backs from crashes with boats going too fast.  Manatees cannot survive if the water becomes too cold, so during the winter months when the ocean temperatures drop, they come to shore seeking warmer water.  One of the manatees’ favorite winter homes is Crystal River, FL, where the water is a constant spring-fed 72 degrees.   Special areas of the spring have been roped off as a manatee sanctuary where humans cannot swim or boat at all.  Manatee numbers have been very slowly increasing and it is thought that about 2,500 of them now exist.   The Crystal River newspaper publishes a weekly aerial manatee count in wintertime. 

Each morning our snorkel boat left the dock promptly at 7 am for the spring heads where the manatees gather to sleep overnight.  We had 10-12 people in our group at most.  On several mornings we found manatees still snoozing on the bottom, nose and flippers balancing their huge bodies in the water.   When manatees feel comfortable and secure, they will happily approach humans.    Often they swam past me, then stopped and turned around to look at me.  If  I stayed quiet, I would see one of their flippers backpedaling and soon they would be in arm’s reach, wanting to be petted!  One could clearly see their eyes, which open and close like a camera lens.  They particularly liked getting their tummy and the area under the flippers scratched.  Some would roll over and arch their backs in pleasure.    When they had enough petting, off they would swim with a flip of their tail to spend the rest of the day munching sea grass.   Sometimes they would go hide in the marine sanctuary when they tired of us humans.   I saw a calf nursing at the breast, which is located underneath the flipper of its mother.  I saw several manatees “gumming” boat anchor lines.  They have no teeth but like to gum those lines for some reason.   Several manatees allowed me to hug them.  And two times manatees actually bumped into me and nudged me demanding to be petted!  Humans don’t go to manatees.  Manatees go to humans.   When they feel secure in their environment, they act like puppy dogs.  I would estimate I saw 40-50 manatees and petted 12-15, not bad for 5 days spent with an endangered species!

Manatees live a precarious existence.  Boats often kill them because they like to swim just beneath the surface of the water.  They also have to surface often to breathe.  Propeller blades routinely rip into them because they swim too slowly to move out of the way of fast moving boats.   Our snorkel boat strictly obeyed the  “no wake—idle speed” signs.  We also posted a lookout in the bow of the boat to spot them ahead of time.  As lookout, I spotted submerged manatees on two occasions.  We stopped to allow them time to get out of our way.  We also had a protector installed on our propeller blades.  One of the other manatee boats, which was loaded with about 20 very noisy snorkelers who had already chased most of the manatees away into the adjoining marine sanctuary, later passed us full speed ahead, no lookout posted, no protector for the propeller.   How anyone actually making a living off the manatees could risk these lovable animals’ lives that way once they have seen and petted them boggles my mind!   Unfortunately, many local Floridians living in the manatee areas find the speed limits for boats a nuisance and often disregard them.  Last year, 95 manatees were killed by boats.  Manatees love us humans in spite of the fact that we have nearly killed them all off….

I feel this manatee trip is the best manatee trip available, and I have absolutely no connection with the people who run it.   The trip also includes 6 optional scuba dives of the Florida freshwater springs for those who are certified divers, which are also well worth doing.  Snorkeling is used for the manatees, as they don’t like scuba bubbles or regulator noise.  If you are interested in going to Florida in January to swim with manatees at a very reasonable cost, contact Underwater Dive Center, Elyria, OH, phone 440-324-3434.   It is an unforgettable experience!

©2003, BJ Bett, All rights reserved

Page last updated: 05/11/2005