manatees

[rachelcbaker]

hi, i am coming over to florida from the UK in a few weeks time and staying in kissimee before heading down to the keys for some diving.

can anyone help as to the best place to snorkel with manatees. i know there is a place at crystal river but i don't know how far that is to drive from kissimee or if there is somewhere else.

thanks in advance for any replies, i might not be able to reply to each post!

cheers

rachel

 

[Wendy]

hi, i am coming over to florida from the UK in a few weeks time and staying in kissimee before heading down to the keys for some diving.

can anyone help as to the best place to snorkel with manatees. i know there is a place at crystal river but i don't know how far that is to drive from kissimee or if there is somewhere else.

thanks in advance for any replies, i might not be able to reply to each post!

cheers

rachel

Crystal river would be your best choice. Its less than 2 hours I think from Kissimmiee. There is blue springs between orlando and daytona, but its a state park and you get fined if you have contact with a mantee or get within so many feet of them.

 

[SubMariner]

Crystal river would be your best choice. Its less than 2 hours I think from Kissimmiee. There is blue springs between orlando and daytona, but its a state park and you get fined if you have contact with a mantee or get within so many feet of them.

The only thing I would add is that manatee watching is usually best done during the Winter months, when most of them come in from the Gulf.

Other advice: go diving as early in the morning as you can, as that is when the manatees are most active. The rest of the day they tend not do do much else than sleep.

 

[GrierHPharmD]

I've snorkeled with them several times. The two best places are at Crystal River and at Homosassa River. There are a number of operators who can help you. I've rented my own boats from Plantation Inn and one other place whose name escapes me right now, but I might suggest that you contact American Pro Divers as a starting point. They give a nice briefing and take you out a little earlier than the others, so that you can see the animals before the river gets too crowded. My family did the first day with American Pro, then went on our own after that.

Snorkeling is best for interacting with the animals, but there are several nice places in Crystal River for scuba, including King's Spring, a cavern that bottoms out at around 53 ffw.

Best wishes and safe travels,
Grier

 

[CBulla]

Crystal and Homosassa river are best for this.

Then there is the random showing of these big ole elephants of the sea while your diving up at Venice Beach.

There are also regular residents who live in amongst the mangrove islands if you like canoeing or kayaking and taking your snorkel gear out with you

 

[herman]

Like others have said, winter is the best time to find them. Your best bet to see and interact with them would be to use a guide service. The best one I have found is Birds Underwater at Crystal River. On our last trip with them, we had 15-20 manatees all around us for about 2 1/2 hrs, several of which insisted on us scratching them..I would suggest you email them and see what they have to offer this time of year. www.birdsunderwater.com

 

[simbrooks]

If all else fails, at least you could dive some of the local springs (assuming they arent still flooded out) - just keep an eye out for the hurricanes as they are still in season here in a few weeks and judging from this season so far that could be a risk. Have fun over here, visit the theme parks, maybe you will even decide to stay like so many other Brits who move over here (like me).

 

[Wendy]

Although like others said winter is the best time to see them. I saw some in Crystal river during October one year, and there were a good many of them.

 

[GDI]

Crystal River has a steady mnantee population all year round and it build over the months of Dec- Feb drops off in March. I sent you a PM with some info. another person you may want to contact is John Russell he always can be found there and does tours

www.scubatampa.com

 

[underwater daphne]

since you like manatees: http://www.savethemanatee.org/default.html