Swimming with the manatees
There are magical moments that are worth reliving and remembering. An encounter with nature’s finest creatures often makes a lasting impression, enough to move one to celebrate Mother Earth and at the same time become a conduit in preserving it.
For wildlife enthusiasts, we are lucky to have whale sharks in Oslob, Cebu and Donsol, Sorsogon and thresher sharks in Malapascua, Cebu. Thousands of tourists both local and international have flocked to these hitherto unknown municipalities to interact with or view what are normally hard-to-encounter marine animals.
On the other hand, halfway around the world, an hour west of Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida lies Crystal Springs which is famous for its own marine mammal, the manatee. Similar to the Philippine dugong, the manatee has a paddle-shaped tail while our local version has a forked tail.
After enjoying the manmade attractions of Disney, Universal and Epcot, we decided to try to give Mother Nature a go. After doing Internet search, River Ventures was the outfit we decided to use for our manatee outing. It offers several three-hour tours per day year round, seven days a week starting at 6:15 a.m. We picked the 9:15 a.m. tour, which gave us ample time to enjoy a relaxed breakfast at our hotel.
The low one-story building housed a reception area that had complimentary hot chocolate, muffins and other light breakfast items. After settling our bill, we stepped into a room with the other tour participants and took our seats. An informative video was shown and gave interesting facts about the animal we had come to see as well as the do’s and don’ts of interaction. It reminded me of a similar video we were required to watch in Donsol. After the film showing, we changed into our wetsuits and were shuttled to the dock where our boat was waiting.
We were met by two guys, Captain Phil and naturalist guide Ken. A short safety briefing was conducted, showing where we could stand, where the life vests, sausage floats, fire extinguisher and other items were located. We pulled away and within minutes we were inside Kings Bay, the headwaters of Crystal River. I took in the salty fresh air and viewed the stately homes and mansions, towering trees and golden brush on the perimeter of the bay.
There were a lot of other manatee-viewing boats around us and it was apparent that the boat captains had a fraternity of sorts, the way they called out to one another, sharing information about where the best sightings could be found. We headed up one of the waterways and saw a group of snorkelers lined up in near a house as Capt. Phil slowed down, a mama manatee and her calf surfaced to breathe, sending all of us to one side of our flatboat. As we nosed further upstream, Ken spotted two more adult manatees and signaled Capt. Phil to slow down and anchor near where we could intercept their path. We grabbed our snorkels, masks and Styrofoam tubes and quickly entered the 22-degree Celsius water. The visibility was clear and we could see the thick vegetation covering the sides and bottom. It is this thick vegetation that the manatees feed on and they can eat as much as 10 to 15 percent of their body weight per day. The average length of the manatees we encountered was between eight and 10 feet and weighed 800 to 1,000 pounds. We were told they can grow up to 13 feet. We were allowed to reach out and touch a manatee with one open palm. Its brownish-grey skin has a rough and leathery feel.
I asked our tour guide Ken why some had rough leathery skin while some that we saw had mossy backs. I found out that most of the manatees in Crystal River are only winter residents. When the weather and the water in the ocean are warm, they go out into the Atlantic. Those are the ones with the clean backs since they are constantly moving and swimming. Those that have mossy backs are the ones that live year round in Crystal River and Kings Bay. These are the older and usually bigger ones who pretty much stay motionless on the bottom for great lengths of time and move only when they need to breathe and eat. These long periods of inactivity allow moss to grow on their backs. The ones who stay out in the Atlantic come to Crystal Springs when the air and water temperature drop below 22 degrees, which is Crystal Rivers’ temperature year round. During this period from November to early March, there are around 500 manatees in the Crystal River area.
Mornings are the best time for encounters as these gentle mammals are actively feeding and sunning themselves while the afternoons find them lying on the bottom and snoozing.
Before we headed back to the hotel, we made a stop at the Three Sisters Spring, one of the major manatee sanctuaries whose three springs provide some of the water that fills Kings Bay. Depending on the tide, the current can either be going into or out of the small rivulet to the spring. Access to it is limited to swimmers, kayakers and snorkelers as during the winter months as many as 150 manatees pack themselves in like sardines to take advantage of the 22-degree water on a frosty winter day. Since the use of fins was banned a year or so ago, lines on both sides have been placed just below the water surface and I used these to pull myself along to get into the spring area. Alongside the banks were a lot of fish living along the roots of the trees and other aquatic plants. After entering the spring source, I realized why it was named Crystal River. The water was gin clear and visibility was in excess of a hundred feet. Schools of fish in various sizes darted about and I removed my snorkel to discover the sweet-tasting water. I was the last one to get on the boat and Ken was smiling as he helped me to the platform. “Liked the Spring, didn’t you?” he asked as I nodded vigorously.
Ken told our group that, as he experienced it as a young boy, the waters in the whole area, including Kings Bay, were as clear as the Three Sisters Spring, but as the years went by, a lot of wilderness was turned into the magnificent homes that now abut the waterways and the bay. Trees were cut and watersheds were lost and as a result siltation has occurred and thus only certain areas such as the Three Sisters live up to the Crystal River name. The majority of manatee deaths are thought to be caused by boat accidents so strict measures were instituted. However, marine scientists believe it is actually the loss of manatee habitats that has contributed to the decline of the sea cow population.
Swimming with the manatees is an experience of a lifetime. No wonder it is a magical phenomenon that one should not miss.
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For more information on swimming with manatees, log on to www.riverventures.com.
Email the author at miladay.star@gmail.com.
