Episode #25: Snorkeling With The Manatee In Crystal River

Crystal River is accurately named, as you can see in the picture I took below, the water is as crystal clear as it is cold in early February. 

During my many years working in the concrete industry I had opportunity to attend industrial trade shows that would occur annually and I went several times with Redi-Mix, NBR, and Hope Concrete. For a number of years these shows would alternate venues between Las Vegas and Orlando. The last time it was held in Orlando was in 1999 and my buddy Tom Muscle and I were there. After that, the show was permanently located at the Las Vegas Convention Center and still is today. Whether in Las Vegas or Orlando, it was a BIG show, with lots and lots of walking involved. Though it is a five day event, you could see the products and vendors you wanted to see in about 3 full days for most people. Tom and I were not most people. 

We would study the massive floor plans of the convention center then devise a plan to see the vendors we wanted to visit and products we needed to see then split them between the two of us and then we would go different directions once we got to the show. We would get the needed product information, then move to the next one quickly and have the entire event covered in a single full day. This would leave us a couple of free days to explore, hike, etc. That last year in Orlando one of the activities Tom worked into our plan was to go snorkeling with the manatee in Crystal River which is about 90 miles north and west of Orlando. 

As always, I was on board for an adventure and said you bet! That sounds like a lot of fun! I had only two concerns about his plan. First I had never snorkeled before and second, what is a manatee?

These show events were scheduled in the second or third week of February each year, so it was always nice and cool. The morning we drive up to Crystal River was no different, we leave Orlando about 5:30 am and you could see your breath in the air and I am excited for this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity as the manatee are not an endangered species yet but they are listed as a Vulnerable Species. We stop for breakfast about 7:00 and arrive a little before the outfitter opens. We have to get fitted with a wet suit and sit through an educational training about the river, the eco-system and the manatee. I guess something I had for breakfast really has my stomach upset over the last hour or so and I am not feeling well, but I am here and I work through it best I can. 

We get on the river in a small boat with a bunch of other people, most of whom are kids on a field trip of sorts. It is still very cool and you can see the vapor rising out of the water into the cold crisp morning air and I am glad to have a wet suit on. What I didn't know then, but find out quickly is I misunderstood how a wet suit works. I am fighting the effects of nausea and I thought the job of a wet suit is to  keep me from getting wet, that was wrong. 

Tom says the river is quite shallow and in most places you can stand on the bottom and your head and shoulders are above the water level. He says since you are not feeling well, I will go first. He gets to the edge of the boat with his mask and snorkel donned and jumps in feet first. He is about 6'5" and he goes completely out of site. A couple of seconds later, he comes up and his face is as red as an apple. After he catches his breath, he says, don't worry, I landed in a hole in the river bed and it is not really that deep. I get my game face on and jump in the river, and in a split second the cold river water comes rushing in my wet suit around my neck and down my back and it is a cold water SHOCK! The wet suit does its job and with my body heat the water warms up quickly. Suddenly I forget I am not feeling well.

As we learned during orientation, most manatee are still sleeping at this time, and they truly are amazing mammals as they hold their breath for up to 20 minutes and catch naps during this time. We are instructed not to follow or chase them, they will come to you if they want to interact. After getting accustomed to breathing through the snorkel with my face under water, I find my way to one of the manatee moving off the bottom slowly toward me. As I learned in the training I was holding my hand out toward him and suddenly I had a terrifying thought...  have I somehow come across a rogue killer manatee? After all these animals weigh between 900-1200 pounds. At that very moment, a manatee swims behind me and brushed up against my leg. It startled me, I panic and spin around and gasped at the same time my snorkel tube goes under water. 

I finally get my footing and stand up, half drowned from breathing in so much river water. After I catch my breath and quit coughing I look around to see who else may have seen my foolishness. Fortunately everyone was underwater and did not see it happen. Somehow my dignity was left intact.

It turned out to be a very good morning and was so glad we did this today. After we finished our time at this part of the river, we went to another location and I tubed down the river while Tom brought his scuba gear. As seen in the picture above the Crystal River is very clear and clean and it had warmed up nicely and was no longer the ice box it was a few hours earlier.

Epilog-

I would like to share my thanks to my buddy  Bob Bowden, pictured above with Tom in the river that morning. I called him while writing this story and he refreshed my memory on a few points about this trip as he was there with not only as a vendor with MHC Kenworth at the World of Concrete Expo Show, but also our friend. Bob also accompanied us on a few day hikes over the next few years in places like Valley of Fire near Las Vegas among other activities. Though I am certain we took a lot of pictures, I cannot find any other than the two I have attached to the story above. However as a part of the price for admission the outfitter does a video of each trip but remember this is 1999 and it is on VHS cassette tape and the quality is quite poor. I finally found a copy of that tape and snagged a picture of Tom and me just before we get into the water from the tape attached below.

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