Crystal River

Again this year we decided to go and snorkel with the manatees in Crystal River, so we left West Palm Beach at 6h00 and drove about 250 miles North-West across Florida and got there around 10h30. We checked in with the operator and went for lunch, we had to be back at 12h00 for the briefing. As the balance between the ecologist movement who would like to stop this activity and the operators and the locals who benefit from the influx of money brought in by the tourists the rules changes, the activity is monitored by government officials onboard kayaks and fines can be given if the rules are not followed. So the operators and everybody that would like this activity to continue abide with the rules. This year one of the change was that we were not permitted to wear our fins the argument being that it made it easy for some people to chase the manatees, the other change was that we are no longer permitted to do flash photography as it disturbs he manatees. Both changes were fine with me, the no fins gave me a good swimming workout especially going upstream in the little river to get to the source of the spring and the no flash is not that much a big deal and it made it easier to swim without them.

The delimitation of the sanctuary were much bigger then last year and there were fewer manatees because of all the warm weather during the past weeks, when it is warmer they tend to stay in the Gulf of Mexico. So at first it was a bit disappointing since we swam the perimeter and only saw one manatee in murky waters, we then decided to swim up river to he source of the spring and there the water was crystal clear and there were 4 or 5 manatees in there. At first there was a bunch of morons lifting all the sediments from the bottom and destroying the visibility so we moved to the other end of the spring where there was fewer people and started taking pictures. The spring sources are around 30 feet deep in crystal blue water and there was a manatee on the ledge about halfway down waiting for me and my camera.

After the bunch of morons had left we returned to the other spring source to look for more and we found two I think it was a mother and baby, although it could also have been a couple. Anyway here it was another opportunity for pictures. We spent around an hour and a half in the water and then got back to the boat 10 minutes before the time limit. By then everybody else was back on the boat, out of their wetsuits and waiting for us.

When we got back on deck, we packed up and drove the 45 miles to the cabin we rented at the Devil' Den in Williston Florida, but that will be part of my next posting.