Dive to see the manatees in 3 Sisters - WHY?

[H2Obaby]

Why? Exactly.
I went out this saturday morning with Birdsunderwater for a snorkel trip to see the manatees. It was absolutely brilliant. On the way back from Kings Bay we stopped off at 3 Sisters to see if there were any manatees there too.
We did find a few manatees but these were vastly outnumbered by the amount of divers, not diving but standing up in the waist-high water. I could not believe people are willing to gear up and get into a river that has a maximum depth of 4 feet. Some bright spark even had Nitrox.
This ordinarily wouldn't bother me, but the divers had obviously been in the water long enough to realise scuba wasn't really necessary, and actually a bit of a bind and so instead of diving/snorkelling, they were standing around stirring up the water making the otherwise crystal clear water all murky. Thanks guys.
For anyone considering a manatee tour, snorkelling is your best bet. If you want to dive down just bring a weight belt. Its recommended for the manatees' benefit that you spend most of the time on the surface interacting with them anyway. Scuba bubbles scare the manatees off. Why bother??

 

[eandiver]

and you are surprised to see people doing this.........it's human nature.

Love the nitrox though. Imagine how long I could stay at 4' with my steel 100's and chase, er, watch the manatees.

 

[wreckchick]

Yeah, I "dove" this site a few years ago. It was 5 teams of DIR divers and the most thorough briefing I've ever had. I felt pretty stupid with my bp/w and drysuit on. To be fair though, I really did think there was more than 7' of water there.

Rachel

 

[eandiver]

Here's a thought......Wouldn't that be called technical snorkeling?

 

[H2Obaby]

Hi Rachel,

You must've been lucky and got the high tide.

 

[H2Obaby]

Got my photos back and this was amongst them. The divers kneeling down and has barely got his face in the water!

 

[eandiver]

That's an excellent shot of a manatee. I'd photoshop the diver with 1/2 of his fin buried in the sand out though.

 

[Kim]

Yeah, I "dove" this site a few years ago. It was 5 teams of DIR divers and the most thorough briefing I've ever had. I felt pretty stupid with my bp/w and drysuit on. To be fair though, I really did think there was more than 7' of water there.

Rachel

Woops! :rofl2:

I'm really sorry, that comes over sooo funny. "5 teams of DIR divers", "thorough briefing"......that missed out the depth? :rofl2:

 

[CBulla]

Woops! :rofl2:

I'm really sorry, that comes over sooo funny. "5 teams of DIR divers", "thorough briefing"......that missed out the depth? :rofl2:

The good news is that with their primary and back up lights they were able to completely illuminate every area under the pontoon boat thus were able to successfully pass reels back and forth under the boat to create a submerged hammock in which the 1.5' safety stop could occur. Everyone practiced ascent drills to... nobody stood up faster than than 30 FPM just for good measure.

 

[moneysavr]

Got my photos back and this was amongst them. The divers kneeling down and has barely got his face in the water!

H2Obaby,
Birds underwater has a nice trip,the boat drivers are real slow and looking to not hit any SEA COW! And they tell you off the bat no need for a rig as it scares them!
They are so cool, I have to get my sister back and get her in the water with them,last trip she did the cattle boat with divers and non divers they only seen 1!