Manatee questions

[GoBlue!]

Hello all-

I'm going to be in Gainesville March 2-3, and my wife & I are interested in a manatee snorkeling tour. We plan to dive Ginnie on the 2nd & hit a manatee tour early a.m. on the 3rd, hopefully saving enough time to buzz up for another couple dives at Ginnie afterward.

A couple questions-
1. I've read of diving on both the Crystal River & the Homosassa River. Should I prefer one over the other?

2. Charters I've seen mentioned several times include Birds Underwater & American Pro Diving. Any reason to go with one over the other? I've also seen Fun 2 Dive mentioned, which looks great (small groups, etc.), but I think tying up our day from 6am to after 3pm may be a bit too much since we want to squeeze in some scuba as well.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[H2Andy]

1. I've read of diving on both the Crystal River & the Homosassa River. Should I prefer one over the other?

I've never been to Homosassa but I know that they have a captive
manatee population there. I don't know if you get to dive with them or
with wild manatees. All of the Crystal River manatees are wild. That's the
only place I've tried, so can't really offer a comparison. All I know is that
I love Crystal River =)

check out these pics from a manatee snorkel this Saturday:

manatee pics

2. Charters I've seen mentioned several times include Birds Underwater & American Pro Diving. Any reason to go with one over the other? I've also seen Fun 2 Dive mentioned, which looks great (small groups, etc.), but I think tying up our day from 6am to after 3pm may be a bit too much since we want to squeeze in some scuba as well.

I've tried both Birds and American Pro Diving. Go with Birds. No question about it. Smaller groups AND they leave earlier (get the 6:15 or, if not available,
the 7:00 trip). The key to seeing manatees is going early and going in a smallish group, and Birds will do both for you.

you'll have a blast

 

[OneBrightGator]

Dear God, you bring that blue down here you better get some orange to go with it!

Stick with Crystal River for manatees.

Birds is good, although expensive.

You could get in some diving at Ginnie after a trip to Crystal River, keeping in mind Gville-CR-Ginnie is at least 3 hours driving time.

Ben

 

[munkispank]

totally have to add to the recommendation for birds- I was there 2 weeks ago- we were at the site and in the water for a full hur before american pro diving turned up- with three boats each with 20+ on board- at the same time, two other charters turned up-the spring was packed.
But birds goes out early and have a great conservation ethic- and the manatees are so cool. It's great when this huge beast comes towarss you and rolls on his pack to have his tummy scratched- can't be beat!!!

add to this the fact that birds will have you back in by 11- lots of time to either drive on to ginne- or devils den/blue grotto

Enjoy!

 

[metaldector]

Manatees are usually in the river in March. As the water warms up they leave. Now I've been in the Crystal River with Manatees and because I have my own boat have never used Bird's or American Pro, so I can't tell you which to use. But, yesterday (Jan. 25th) I was at Blue Spring, in Orange City diving and 70 manatees were in the spring discharge. Cost? $10.70 per diver. And as One-bright-gator said. "Its 3 hours" to and from Ginnie. Come on down and enjoy the water!

 

[H2Andy]

I was at Blue Spring, in Orange City diving and 70 manatees were in the spring discharge. Cost? $10.70 per diver. And as One-bright-gator said. "Its 3 hours" to and from Ginnie. Come on down and enjoy the water!

they didn't use to let you swim with the manatees at Blue Springs. Have
they changed the rules? If so, awesome.

hmmm... and they raised the prices at Blue Spring, the bassirds...
used to be $5.00.

 

[MikeS]

A couple questions-
1. I've read of diving on both the Crystal River & the Homosassa River. Should I prefer one over the other?

Jim,

We just got back Sunday, snorkeled at Crystal River on Friday and Homosassa River on Saturday with American Pro Diving. The biggest difference was visibility, much better at Crystal River, plus if you’re interested you can do a cavern dive after snorkeling at Crystal River.

I've never been to Homosassa but I know that they have a captive manatee population there. I don't know if you get to dive with them or
with wild manatees.

We snorkeled with the “wild” manatees. It did not appear that you could get access to the water where the recuperating, “captive’ manatees were kept.

Mike

 

[iflyprops]

Umm, I was at blue springs on saturday and they were very strict about staying 50ft from the manatees...although one lonely one managed to escape the wrath of the rangers and hang out with us at the spring head.

 

[divebomb]

Jim,

I was with H2Andy on Saturday at Crystal. It exceeded my expectation. If there is such a thing as a manatee mauling, we were the victims. As soon as the boat stopped, they just came right up and started flossing on the anchor line.

It was stated that we started early, and boy did we. It makes it harder taking that first step into the water, but you warm up fast. As our trip was about to wind up around 9:00, the other boats started coming up the river...and the manatees started to scatter. Until then we had been there alone and had the cows all to ourselves. BIG advantage to Birds. I would highly recommend them. Just show up and they'll take care of everything.

Beck Bryant

 

[GoBlue!]

Thanks, all. My wife & I just booked w/ Birds for an early morning, 1st week of March. They also warned that if the warmth of spring comes early this year, the manatees may leave by then, but they're fully refundable if we call a few days in advance and find out that conditions for manatee-visiting are poor.

We appreciate the recommendations, and look forward to the experience!

Jim