Watching Manatees, Florida

2022 winter break, we went to Florida. The main purpose is to see manatees! 

I had not known about manatees until several years ago when I first went to Florida. During that trip, I only saw 2 manatees once. I wanted to see manatees again. So this time we drove to Florida. 

Manatees are mammals living in the ocean. They are "sea elephants". Their closest animal is indeed elephants. They are out in the sea in the warm season, but in the winter, they get frostbite in the far out ocean. Therefore they come near the springs in Florida. Springs are the same warm temperature all over the year, so those are the safe place to spend winter for them.

First, we camped at Blue Spring State Park. Blue springs are crystal clear and very beautiful green colored water. The rangers there counts manatees everyday. For my surprise, the day we were there, about 620 manatees were there! Can you believe that? I had never seen so many sea mammals in one sight.

manatees!

 

more manatees

They are very calm, just laying down in the warm water. It was amazing how clear the water was. There are adults manatees and some kids. You can see in the left picture the size difference of them. Since Blue Spring has sooooo many manatees, swimming or kayaking are prohibited. It makes sense. However other parks where less manatees are concentrated, kayaking and swimming are allowed. So we went there to check it out. 

 

We kayaked in Tarpon Hole. Here, we were able to kayak, and even snorkel! Snorkeling was really cold, but we had an unforgettable experience. Seeing a manatee in the ocean. So cute. Very big. Bigger than I had expected. The shape is like a baked potato. It swam by me peacefully. What a wonderful moment to be there. 10+ more people were around snorkeling there, but we were the only people WITHOUT water suits. Because other people were from a guided tour, so they were provided with swim suits, and when then left, the guide was telling them that hot drinks were waiting on the boat. Well, we had insulated mug filled with coffee. Although it was Florida, the cold storm hit all U.S., and it got cold even in Florida. Next time I will definitely bring water suits.

MANATEE!!!

 

Then we went kayaking in another place, Manatee Park. This park does not have spring, but serves as winter refuge for manatees. Why? They come to the Florida Power and Light warm water canal. Power Plant Discharge Canal is in the state park. Canal itself is not allowed to kayak, but the river connected to canal is allowed. Manatees are really congested in the canal, but great amount of manatees also go out for river to eat and rest. Kayaking to see those is really nice. During kayak, we saw 100+ manatees, but we saw very memorable 2 manatees. One manatee, near the canal, bumped into our kayak. The ranger in the park said manatees are very curious animals. Wow.

 

manatee

The second one was more memorable. One manatee came just along the kayak and stayed for 10 minutes! I saw his nose open to breathe, and I even felt air moving coming from his nose! then his nose closed when he went into water. I had a Canon yellow water camera and I put it into water. The manatee might be interested in it. In the left picture the orange is our kayak and the manatee right next to me!!! In the below picture, you can even see his hair. One of features of mammal, they have hairs.