Snorkeling with Manatees at Crystal River

On Friday, March 21, 2008 Carole and Jay Furr took part in a snorkeling-with-the-manatees tour in King's Bay, in Crystal River, Florida, coordinated by Bird's Underwater Manatee Tours. After an instructional video developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and extensive reminders about what sort of contact and proximity is legally permitted with these endangered creatures, Carole and Jay and ten other snorkelers set off before dawn to find manatees. (Early morning hours are the best times to find manatees; when the water warms they head further out into the bay, farther from shore.)

After cruising fruitlessly around for forty-five minutes or so, we finally spotted a pair swimming about. We spent an hour or so snorkeling around them and scritching their tummies; amazingly, manatees are a lot like big kitties and love having their tummies scritched. At all times, however, we made sure we were not touching them with two hands at the same time or in any way confining them.

After that, we got back on the boat and continued down to a natural spring off to one side of the river and snorkeled around in crystal clear water, watching fish and turtles and fellow divers. It was an amazing morning.