This post should be called swimming with manatees in Crystal River, but it turned out that an unseasonably warm February in Florida made for conditions that sent the manatees on their way back to the Gulf by the time we arrived. We still got to see a few manatees in Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park (where they have some rescued ones they are rehabilitating) but the usual population that migrates to the springs to escape the cold waters of the Gulf in a typical season (mid-Nov. to Mar.) had already left.
It was a little disappointing at first, but we were fortunate that Birds Underwater Dive Center was kind enough to reimburse their guests after saying that they had not seen manatees for the last few trips. They claimed that many of the local operators were still taking people out for expensive snorkeling tours knowing full well that there would be almost no chance of any sightings. Thank you Birds Underwater, we will book with you again when we try this trip in the future.
Best Time to Swim with Manatees
So lesson learned that we want to pass on to our readers: Before booking your manatee snorkeling trips, ask the operators if they have had manatee sighting in the last few days; especially in the early or late months, as the migration times are obviously weather dependent. We would suggest that the best chance to see manatees would be December and January; it’s somewhat riskier to book in November or March, or even February, as we had done.
So to make lemonade out of lemons, we still managed to have a nice weekend and explore some of these beautiful spring fed areas of Florida’s northwest. Here’s a little more of what we saw; it certainly will serve as incentive for us to go back and try again to swim with the manatees. Some of the stories we heard were just amazing!
About Manatees
Manatees can grow to over 10 feet in length and weigh over 1,000 pounds with the largest recorded being 15 feet and almost 4,000 pounds. They can live up to about 60 years, and spend most of their time sleeping submerged but coming up for air every 20 minutes or so. They generally swim slowly at 3-5 miles per hour but have been known to do short bursts of up to 20 miles per hour. When eating, they are known to walk along the bottom using their flippers to dig for food and then scoop it up toward their lips.
Sometimes referred to as sea cows, these gentle giants are vegetarians and thought to have evolved from four-legged land mammals some 60 million years ago. They are intelligent and able to perform complex associative learning tasks similar to dolphins and use a wide range of sounds to communicate with each other and their calves.
Imagine, they swim all day and eat grass, and still get that big—so much for our exercise regimen ideas! Joking aside, we were actually surprised to learn that manatees have little or no fat on their bodies. This is one of the reasons they have to migrate and keep out of the cold waters, as they have no insulation to protect them. They eat over 100 pounds of vegetation a day and it can take them over 7 days to digest what they eat. Their intestine is over 150 feet in length. So, looks can be deceiving; these creatures are lean, and have zero percent body fat!
Manatees used to be numerous all over Florida but with urban expansion and boating, the slow-moving curious creatures often fall victim to propeller accidents. Urban expansion has also destroyed manatee habitats, as well as Red Tides (a specific type of marine algae that can harm or kill these creatures). As recently as 2010 there were fears of extinction, with only about 5,000 manatees living in Florida. In January 2016 the estimated population of manatees in Florida was over 6,000. It is illegal in Florida to harm a manatee. Fines can be in the tens of thousands of dollars for feeding, touching, watering or harassing these creatures in any way.
Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park
You are sure to see manatees here, because the park has resident manatees that are in the process of being rehabilitated. Whether they have suffered cold trauma or been hurt by propellers, the park rangers have facilities to help them recover, with the eventual aim of releasing them back into the wild. We learned a lot about manatees here from the rangers—it’s well worth listening in on their informational sessions and watching the feeding sessions. So what do they feed the manatees? Well, a tossed salad…the ranger says, as he tosses in a head of Romaine lettuce. Two full boxes of what looked like 20 or more full heads each were fed to the three manatees in the recovery tank!
The ranger also talked more about the wonderful experience they had, snorkeling with manatees. While manatees have no predators, they have excellent hearing and are disturbed by noises. For this reason the best thing to do is to simply float on the surface quietly and they may approach you. We heard of some instances where manatees would come and use their hand-like fin to take hold of a floating snorkeler’s hand and pull them along a little! Some wonderful stories, again incentive for us to come back in the future…
The park itself has more than just manatees, and almost all of the creatures are rescues that cannot be re-released into the wild due to injuries or simply the way they were raised. There is even a hippo that was once a movie star that has been allowed to live out his final years in the park. There is a panther, a bobcat, some red wolves (that had just mated), a black bear, and lots of birds.
The clear water gives you lots of nice views of the gators, manatees, and fish. There’s even a submerged room where you can look into the stream through numerous windows. Entry was $13 each for us and we were happy to go and at least get to see a few captive manatees after our long drive from Miami.
Crystal River
This popular tourist area has many businesses that cater to manatee tours and snorkeling adventures. The area is famous in Florida as THE place to go and interact with the fragile and protected manatees. With the manatees gone for the season, we didn’t explore it as much as we would have liked to, but we got a few pictures of the general area.
Rainbow Springs & Rainbow River
On the way back home, we sidetracked a little to go visit Rainbow Springs State Park on the recommendation of one of our dive boat captains. This park was just a great place to visit and we got to jump into the cold-water stream to enjoy a little swimming before our trip back. The water is super clear and the park is located at the head of the spring that delivers 400 to 600 million gallons of water daily into the river.
We’re told that you can also go scuba diving in the river. You basically drift for an hour or so along the bottom seeing various creatures and watching the sand bubbling as the spring feeds the water into the Rainbow River. A lot of popular cavern diving takes place in this area including Ginnie Springs, Devil’s Den and others.
We loved the park with its really well-made paths and lookouts over the water, various waterfalls, wonderful gardens and flowers all around, perfect for a relaxing time. Yes, the water was cold getting in but not so bad once you were in and swimming. What was amazing was coming out…you felt great, it was therapeutic.
So while it was somewhat of a trek for us with 5+ hours of driving in either direction, we were happy to explore some new corners of Florida that we hadn’t seen before. It was a different world from the Miami scene for sure!