MtnDiver
Guest
Day 1 - Crystal River, FL
After staying overnight at the Crystal River Resort (http://www.crystalriverresort.com), we met up at the Crystal Lodge Dive Center (http://www.manatee-central.com) located on the resort property for our 8am briefing before the boat ride out into King's Bay. The briefing consists of fitting for a wetsuit, mask, fins, and snorkel if you didn't bring yours, then watching a 10 minute video on the do's and don'ts of Manatee interaction.
The weather was perfect, temp in the upper 60's, and calm winds. Four other guests and my wife and I boarded a pontoon boat with our guide for the trip, Captain Andy. The river was smooth as glass and you could see Manatees surfacing for air all along the shores on the way out to the "Big Bay". Captain Andy was an excellent guide and on the trip out he gave us specific instructions on what to do and not do as well as some insider tips on luring the Manatees over to us. I have to say, it all worked perfectly, just like he told us.
Once we got to the "Big Bay", Captain Andy carefully (and quietly) lowered the anchor, and got us in the water. We were anchored only 10 feet away from one of the bouys marking the Manatee Santuary area and there was a Manatee outside the sanctuary only a few feet from our boat.
Over the next hour and 45 minutes, we saw over a dozen different Manatees, including two juveniles and one very small (by Manatee standards) baby. The baby was still nursing on mom and after she had checked us out, we heard her communicate through squeaks to the baby, who replied to her and promptly came over to play with us. At this point, mom left and the baby stayed with us to play for awhile. After about 15 minutes, mom came back and she and the baby swam off into the sanctuary.
The neat part about this experience for me and my wife was that the Manatees are free to come and go as they please. It is their choice to come up and interact with you and they are more than willing to if you are quiet and swim slowly and and calmly.
I have to say, though, that there was one rather disturbing occurance that happend near the end of our time in the water. A pontoon boat from a dive shop from Orlando (I'm not sure I should name names here, so I'll wait for permission, or you can PM me) came in noisily into the big bay and pulled up next to our boat and let the anchor chain rattle against the hull while dropping anchor. That pretty much scared off all of the Manatees near our boat. They then proceeded to don tanks and go in and swim all around the big bay on the bottom which pretty much scared all of the rest of the Manatees from the area. You would think that people would have a little more respect for the animals. It is a very well known fact that the noise from scuba and the bubbles associated with it scare Manatees. Besides, the bay was only about 15 feet deep at the deepest part, there isn't anything interesting that you can't see with a snorkel, and the visibility wasn't that great. Seems like they could have found a better place to SCUBA dive than in the middle of the bay where the Manatees were. I thought it was pretty callous and rude of them to just motor into the middle of our area where we were playing with the Manatees and scare them off like that. Not a very responsible operator in my opinion and I know that I will never use that operator and in fact will steer everybody I can away from them.
That being said, though, I have nothing but praise for the Crystal Lodge Dive Center, and especially Captain Andy. He made the experience very enjoyable for us and was a very friendly and personable guide. Captain Andy has his own website at http://www.captainandy.com where you can see pictures and read stories from past clients about his Manatee tours. All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip, especially considering the $15 cost.
I've posted a few photos in my gallery here
After staying overnight at the Crystal River Resort (http://www.crystalriverresort.com), we met up at the Crystal Lodge Dive Center (http://www.manatee-central.com) located on the resort property for our 8am briefing before the boat ride out into King's Bay. The briefing consists of fitting for a wetsuit, mask, fins, and snorkel if you didn't bring yours, then watching a 10 minute video on the do's and don'ts of Manatee interaction.
The weather was perfect, temp in the upper 60's, and calm winds. Four other guests and my wife and I boarded a pontoon boat with our guide for the trip, Captain Andy. The river was smooth as glass and you could see Manatees surfacing for air all along the shores on the way out to the "Big Bay". Captain Andy was an excellent guide and on the trip out he gave us specific instructions on what to do and not do as well as some insider tips on luring the Manatees over to us. I have to say, it all worked perfectly, just like he told us.
Once we got to the "Big Bay", Captain Andy carefully (and quietly) lowered the anchor, and got us in the water. We were anchored only 10 feet away from one of the bouys marking the Manatee Santuary area and there was a Manatee outside the sanctuary only a few feet from our boat.
Over the next hour and 45 minutes, we saw over a dozen different Manatees, including two juveniles and one very small (by Manatee standards) baby. The baby was still nursing on mom and after she had checked us out, we heard her communicate through squeaks to the baby, who replied to her and promptly came over to play with us. At this point, mom left and the baby stayed with us to play for awhile. After about 15 minutes, mom came back and she and the baby swam off into the sanctuary.
The neat part about this experience for me and my wife was that the Manatees are free to come and go as they please. It is their choice to come up and interact with you and they are more than willing to if you are quiet and swim slowly and and calmly.
I have to say, though, that there was one rather disturbing occurance that happend near the end of our time in the water. A pontoon boat from a dive shop from Orlando (I'm not sure I should name names here, so I'll wait for permission, or you can PM me) came in noisily into the big bay and pulled up next to our boat and let the anchor chain rattle against the hull while dropping anchor. That pretty much scared off all of the Manatees near our boat. They then proceeded to don tanks and go in and swim all around the big bay on the bottom which pretty much scared all of the rest of the Manatees from the area. You would think that people would have a little more respect for the animals. It is a very well known fact that the noise from scuba and the bubbles associated with it scare Manatees. Besides, the bay was only about 15 feet deep at the deepest part, there isn't anything interesting that you can't see with a snorkel, and the visibility wasn't that great. Seems like they could have found a better place to SCUBA dive than in the middle of the bay where the Manatees were. I thought it was pretty callous and rude of them to just motor into the middle of our area where we were playing with the Manatees and scare them off like that. Not a very responsible operator in my opinion and I know that I will never use that operator and in fact will steer everybody I can away from them.
That being said, though, I have nothing but praise for the Crystal Lodge Dive Center, and especially Captain Andy. He made the experience very enjoyable for us and was a very friendly and personable guide. Captain Andy has his own website at http://www.captainandy.com where you can see pictures and read stories from past clients about his Manatee tours. All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip, especially considering the $15 cost.
I've posted a few photos in my gallery here