siikik
Contributor
Went to Blue Spring last Saturday (7/25) and had an amazing dive with manatee! We arrived later than usual (after getting a late start) and were in the water around 9:30 or so. After having some trouble equalizing, the spouse ascended a few feet (enough to get out of the hole,) to see three manatee swimming around her and quickly became excited, not to mention elated.
They were quite playful with each other and were very curious about the divers as they swam up to nearly every one of us in the water at the time. They appeared to be a family unit with two adults and a youngster just having a good 'ole time swimming around. All the recent rains have kept the run deep enough for them to swim all the way to the boil.
For a time they wandered off down the run a bit and excited all the swimmers so we decided to have a surface interval to talk about them and to kick each other for forgetting our camera... there was no doubt where the manatee were at... just look for the crowd. Not willing to let go of the moment just yet, we went down the run and found them. While I was happily watching from underneath, Beka was happily scolding all the swimmers who had surrounded and trapped the manatee. Once the crowd broke up, the manatee swam back to the boil and continued their playful behavior. I perched myself on a log and just watched... until the largest of the three decided, "hey, you're on my log" and proceeded to treat me like the other manatee, pushing me aside. I humbly obliged. They don't look like they can move fast, but they do. Although on reflection, it was probably more like, "hey, do you want to play?"
So thanks to Lou (Lake Mary Scuba Club) for allowing me to use his "diving with sofas" phrase... now that I've done it, I understand what he means... you'll get out of their path one way or another.
And for those of you who didn't catch it before... I forgot the camera. Sorry, no pictures... just memories. There were others there with cameras so perhaps one of them will post some pictures.
As I think about it, this was simply an amazing set of circumstances. I would have never thought manatee would have been in the spring in July and right at the time we were there. This was probably the longest dive I've had at Blue Spring... and certainly the most memorable.
Ken
They were quite playful with each other and were very curious about the divers as they swam up to nearly every one of us in the water at the time. They appeared to be a family unit with two adults and a youngster just having a good 'ole time swimming around. All the recent rains have kept the run deep enough for them to swim all the way to the boil.
For a time they wandered off down the run a bit and excited all the swimmers so we decided to have a surface interval to talk about them and to kick each other for forgetting our camera... there was no doubt where the manatee were at... just look for the crowd. Not willing to let go of the moment just yet, we went down the run and found them. While I was happily watching from underneath, Beka was happily scolding all the swimmers who had surrounded and trapped the manatee. Once the crowd broke up, the manatee swam back to the boil and continued their playful behavior. I perched myself on a log and just watched... until the largest of the three decided, "hey, you're on my log" and proceeded to treat me like the other manatee, pushing me aside. I humbly obliged. They don't look like they can move fast, but they do. Although on reflection, it was probably more like, "hey, do you want to play?"
So thanks to Lou (Lake Mary Scuba Club) for allowing me to use his "diving with sofas" phrase... now that I've done it, I understand what he means... you'll get out of their path one way or another.
And for those of you who didn't catch it before... I forgot the camera. Sorry, no pictures... just memories. There were others there with cameras so perhaps one of them will post some pictures.
As I think about it, this was simply an amazing set of circumstances. I would have never thought manatee would have been in the spring in July and right at the time we were there. This was probably the longest dive I've had at Blue Spring... and certainly the most memorable.
Ken
