Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Snorkling with the Manatees

You may remember that last year Mike and Maddy had an amazing experience during Mary's visit when they went swimming with manatees. A couple of weeks later, they couldn't wait to share their encounter with me but the manatees had already left Crystal River for the summer (link here!) :(. This year we planned ahead a bit better to make sure that we didn't miss out again and stayed overnight in a hotel so that we could get out at 6 in the morning when the manatees are most visible and active:)
 

 
Manatees are endangered animals and Crystal River not only has the largest migration of manatees each year, but is also the only place in North America where you can interact with them legally. There are lots of rules to observe and you are closely supervised. However, aside from the fact that breaking these rules can lead to a year in jail, manatees are really beautiful and graceful creatures so we wanted to be very careful not to disturb them too much during our encounter.  
  
 
As soon as the sun came up and we were out on the water, there were manatee mating pods everywhere - it was crazy! Maddy and I stayed close to the boat so that we could both interact and get away when it was overwhelming. It was actually quite scary at times!
 

This one loved chewing on Maddy's foot :) 

 
Our trip was with Bird's Underwater Dive Center (link here!) and they did such a phenomenal job! They are the only company that goes out as soon as the sun comes up and Bird's stays out for much longer than the other manatee tour groups. They even take a movie of your experience which you can buy afterwards:).


It was an amazing day - and if you haven't done it before, I would definitely add it to your bucket list for sure. And I know a lovely family you can look up while you're in town - they'd love to see you :).
 

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