Went to Crystal River today

[fsudiver]

I have family that live over there on the water, I was going to go give it a try today just to get out of the house but my buddy had something come up and I don't like diving alone. After diving go North from Kings Spring, past the marina to the far NE you'll see a place called Crackers. Get yourself a Grouper sandwhich (awesome) and ice cold beer

I am salivating already! Awesome.

 

[fsudiver]

We just came back from diving with the manatees at Crystal River, where we rented a pontoon boat from the Port Hotel & Marina. This is an EXCELLENT operation, right there within plain view of one of the springs (King's Spring) where the manatees like to hang out. They make you view an 11-minute video before you rent their pontoon boats, and it explains why and how these amazing creatures are protected. It also tells you things to look for as you are making your way through the waters- which most of us locals are quite familiar with seeing- that indicate manatees are nearby.

Though we heard reports from other divers of 78 degree waters, my gauge registered 75 degrees...not too bad for this time of year in Florida. Air temps were about the same, though a late day storm dropped the temps to upper 60s by the time we were done.

After having some wonderful encounters with dozens of manatees lasting about an hour at King's Spring (maximum depth we reached outside the cavern was just 28 feet), we made our way down to Three Sisters, a short boat ride with views of gorgeous wildlife along the way (watch out for manatees swimming the same route!). Three Sisters was less crowded and was packed with manatees. Visibility at King's Spring started out pretty bad due to some rookie divers packed in like sardines, but it improved to about 20-25' pretty quickly and provided many great views of the manatees. One big guy was especially friendly to all the divers, beckoning them to scratch his tummy then rolling in pleasure after any encounter. Visibility at Three Sisters was as far as the eye could see...gorgeous and clear. Manatees were seen from the boat all around the springs, and lots of kayakers and snorkellers were also having great encounters- as were more SCUBA divers.

The only downside of the day was eating at the Ale House located at the marina (group decision to go there instead of the recommended spot above). Food took a long time, wasn't that good, and didn't compare to other local spots with great seafood. Despite the one person's bad experience, I highly, highly recommend SCUBA diving with the manatees. One of my favorite things to do is to hang out on the bottom of the river and watch the manatees sleep! AWESOME!

I'll leave it to Bill and others to leave a more detailed trip report.

 

[jpsexton]

I highly, highly recommend SCUBA diving with the manatees. One of my favorite things to do is to hang out on the bottom of the river and watch the manatees sleep! AWESOME!

I'm going to be down there in a couple of weeks and really looking forward to it. I thought you could'nt SCUBA with the manatees because the bubbles scared them away. Is that not the case? We were planning on snorkleing but SCUBA would be cool too if possible.

John

 

[bennedc]

Yes, you can scuba, but snorkeling is best for manatee, in my opinion. They seem to scatter when divers are around. Scuba also tends to stir up stuff and ruin viz right there. The water is shallow in places (like 4ft) and deep in places (like 25 ft). See my pics and previous posts on my trip Jan 13-15. If you snorkel in the deeper water, there's nothing for you to kick up, except for maybe all the other snorkelers if you don't get in the water by 9:00 a.m.! Gets crowded. I loved it, though. We (the fam) go every year. It's a wonderful experience. We, too, went out of Port Hotel & Marina; it's literally RIGHT THERE!

 

[GrierHPharmD]

I'll chime in that I've had lots of great dive experiences in the Crystal River area. Viz can go to hell pretty quickly on the weekends, when you have lots of folks in the water mucking things up, but in general, I've been very happy with the dives and snorkel swims I've had there.

I'll also chime in on the snorkel vs. scuba issue. I usually only use scuba when I'm going down into King's Spring, which is 50+ ft deep and has a little cavern. Otherwise, mask, fins and snorkel are all you need. (And a wetsuit, cause the water is a little chilly this time of year...)

Great trip reports above. Loved the photos. They're much more like my experiences there than the original post. Still, any diver can have a bad day of diving. It's certainly happened to me often enough...

Safe ascents,
Grier

 

[pickens_46929]

Anyway, Crystal River is an awesome experience. I guess I just recommend using one of the dive ops (IMHO, American Pro is best) for the snorkel part at least. It's not that expensive to let someone else worry about anchors and stuff.

I can attest to American Pro being good. They'll also take you to other places which are pretty neat to dive... like Paradise Springs, Devils Den, etc. I generally find it cheaper to do a class which incl. tanks and weights with them.

So peak performance bouyancy, boat, night, deep, etc. were all good! For the Deep training Sean at American Pro took us to 40 Fathoms.

 

[fsudiver]

I disagree with people who say that SCUBA is no good around manatees. There were plenty of other divers there, too, and the bubbles didn't begin to scare the manatees away. Hanging out on the river bottom watching the manatees sleep was one of my favorite things- and you just can't do that without SCUBA!

 

[Aucilla]

Well, we went last Sunday and had a great time. We rented a pontoon boat from the dive center at the Port Motel and Marina in Crystal River. As before, the boat electric start ran flawlessly and the 4 cycle boat motor was nice and quiet.

We got to the nearby, in sight of the dock, King Springs. The visibility at the boat was maybe 15 feet, so I left my camera on board. As we neared the entrance of the "cavern," the vis improved a good bit, maybe to 20 or 25 feet. The are, on this Sunday at 10 AM, was crowded with divers, especially at or above the cavern entrance. Many mangrove or gray snapper were schooled and so were some things that looked like mullet and maybe sand trout.

After 20 minutes or so, I figure it would be like last trip: no manatees here but maybe at Three Sisters. Then we saw them, above us and near the margin of the permitted diving area: a mother and a calf swimming away. We began to explore these margins, where the bottom rose up to 10 or 15 feet, and came across a lot of them. Many were resting motionless. Maybe 1/3 had propellar scars. Some swam off, and we would swim along side.

Then, a bit later in a bit deeper water, away from the cavern, we came across a huge, white-looking manatee, seemingly asleep at maybe 20 feet. I turned on my side and stationed myself several feet away and watched. Sure enough, the began to lift off the bottom, ready for a breath of air. Keeping my distance, I swam on my side and parallel to the big beast as he swam along and up. Then he descended back down and just stopped. I could tell it was looking at me with the tiny eye in that huge body. So I held my hand out flat, at arm's length from me and a few feet from him.

The manatee came over and began rubbing along my hand just like a dog! So I began to pet it, and, as we were in 20 ft., it rolled over on its back, over me. so I could pet the top of its back. This went on for several minutes, with the manatee cleary enjoying the petting it had initiated.
Then it swam away.

That was the highlight of the trip.

By the time everybody was back on the boat, we realized we had all had a great time and that we didn't have time to dive at Three Sisters, too, before the boat was due back. But we motored back to the entrance to Three Sisters, and found the water crystal clear and crowded with many manatees of all sizes.

EDIT: Hi Donna! Just read your report above on our trip, after I composed and posted this. You hit the nail on the head!