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Today we will spend all day on our kayaks. We are not going diving with manatees. We wanted to show you all of the Crystal River that the manatees swim in, back and forth, searching for food or warm water. If we are lucky maybe we can find some manatees swimming along in the river. 6:00 AM - We get up to get ready for our long kayak trip. We are leaving early to start the end of low tide. (What are tides? Why do you think we would want to start paddling up the river at the end of low tide?) 7:00 AM - We drove our minivan, with our Cobra Tourer kayaks strapped on top, to the Gulf of Mexico. At 7:15 AM we arrived at Fort Island beach. (Fort Island got its name from the fort that was here during the Civil War. The Union army had a fort here to stop prevent any ships from getting to the city of Crystal River to unload their cargo.) We didn't find any fort here. We didn't even find any people. We did find hundreds of gulls that were enjoying this beach, by themselves without any people to disturb them...That is, until we got there. As we set up our Cobra kayaks on the beach all the gulls took off and flew around screeching at us. (Fortunately none of the gulls hit us with their aerial splatter bombs.) 8:30 AM: We start our paddle up Crystal River, on our way to Kings Bay. All our equipment, dry towels, and cameras are tied down to our kayaks for our long trip. After leaving the beach and heading out into the Gulf of Mexico, we stopped to take some measurements and collect water samples. The water is not very clear. It has a lot of muddy sediment in it. The water is warm. It is even warmer than the fresh water springs in Kings Bay. We don't think many manatees will be at the springs today. We are paddling to Shell Island at the mouth of Crystal River. Half way to Shell Island I see what look like rocks sticking out of the water. As we get closer I discover I can't really see the rocks, because they are covered with hundreds and hundreds of oysters. These are called oyster bars. (Oysters are mollusks, like mussels. Oysters are filter feeders. They filter out food from the muddy sediments in the water. Oysters help clean the sediments from the water. Many people like to eat oysters.) As we get close we see a little bird walking across the oyster bar. This bird is called an oyster catcher. (Why do you think he is here?) Normally all these oyster bars would be covered with water. At low tide many of the oyster bars are sticking out of the water. We have to be careful as paddle around the oyster bars. The oyster shells are very sharp. The sharp shells could scratch our kayaks. We arrrive at Shell Island. It has a beautiful beach, but it is not sand, it is all shells! We pull up our kayaks and explore the island. We find temple mounds, like the mound we showed you on Day 13. The mounds here are not as high as the 30 foot high mound we saw on Day 13. These mounds are only about 15 feet high. The mounds are all connected and covered with plants. Mr. Purcell told us that if we looked around the beach of Shell Island at low tide we could find pieces of pottery from the Indians that lived here about 2,000 years ago. Unfortunately, we do not have time to spend the day walking along the beach looking for pottery pieces. We have a long paddle up the river and we need to keep moving. We know when we have reached the mouth of Crystal River, because we see a big sign that tells boaters to slow down since manatees could be swimming by. Most of the boaters are careful about going slow. A few boaters are going faster than they should. We wonder if the boaters are being careful about watching out for manatees. There are many little islands in this area. This area is called an estuary. This is where the salt water and fresh water meet. There are many little islands here, but they don't look like islands. Islands are surrounded by water. It doesn't look like islands surrounded by water. It looks like fields of tall grass. These grasses are about 6 feet tall! The water around the islands is very shallow. The water depth around the islands at low tide is one foot deep, or less! When we see trees sticking out of the grasses, that is were the islands are. These grasses are an important part of the ecosystem here. The roots of the grasses stops and holds down much of the muddy sediments flow here from land. The grasses act like a filter to clean the water as it goes through here. That is important because some underwater animals (like corals) could die from being smothered by the muddy sediments. The grasses are also the first line of defense for the land. These grasses help prevent erosion of land during storms. The grasses aslo provide shelter and a hiding place for many of the animals found in the estuary. These animals include, river otters, birds, snakes, alligators. These grasses are not the favorite food of manatees. Sometimes, though, manatees have been seen eating the roots of these grasses. We see a clump of trees along the river. It is Wash Island. We stop to collect more water samples and measurements. As we paddle along we see a variety of birds, such as egret, herons, ducks and cormorants. No snakes. No alligators. No manatees. About half way back to our base in Kings Bay, we stop to collect more water samples and measurements. We are near Salt River. Here Salt River connects to Crystal River. Salt River is another way manatees can get to Crystal River, but we don't think we will find manatees in there today, either. We see more and more trees. Now these trees are not on islands, but on the mainland. We getting hungry now, so we stop, a ways down from Salt River, to have lunch. We pull up our kayaks on a small beach. The beach is where the large temple mound is from Day 13. As we are having lunch we look out along the river and see one of the manatees' favorite foods, water hyacinth. We do not see any manatees eating, though. After eating our sandwiches, we get back in our kayaks and continue up river. We start to see housing developments along the river. This is another problem for manatees. When people build along these rivers it destroys some of the manatees habitat. Fortunately we have discovered that manatees are very good at adapting to changes in their habitat . Unfortunately, manatees are not good at adapting to more boats. As people move in here, they bring their boats. More boats in the rivers means more manatee will be injured. People will continue to build along rivers. People will continue bring their boats. We need to think about the best ways for people and manatees to live together safely. Maybe you have some ideas that will help manatees live safely with people. After paddling for about 6 hours we return to our base in Kings Bay. We did not see any manatees today, but we have a chance to explore the ecosystem that is part of the manatees' habitat. MANATEE RESCUE UPDATE: Unfortunately we were told Blue the manatee died before he could be operated on yesterday. About half of all manatees rescued die from their injuries. We were sad about Blue, but we are happy that the mother, Dimitra, and her calf, Ivan are still doing fine. We hope both Dimitra and Ivan will be able to live long healthy lives. BIG NEWS! If you are having as such fun as we are you probably don't want our expedition to end...Well, it's not...At least, not today. We were able to extend our expedition a couple more days. Next we will visit Sea World in Orlando. Sea World has the largest manatee treatment and care center in Florida. At Sea World we will also meet the leading manatee expert, Dr. Dan O'Dell. Before we head back to California we will, also, spend a day with the "water police". These are the police officers for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Their jobs are to make sure people obey the laws are were made to protect manatees. Join us for the final days of our Crystal River Florida Manatee Expedition! |
This is an aerial view of the west coast of Florida and Crystal River. The big blue area is the Gulf of Mexico. We put in our kayaks on the little white sand beach you can see on Fort Island (middle, right). The white wavy lines you see in the water are the oyster bars. Our first stop was Shell Island (long island in front). The green clump of trees on Shell Island is where we found the indian mounds.
I am paddling up to the beach at Shell Island.
I am paddling along the grasses toward the trees. Between the trees is the temple mound we showed you on Day 13. TODAY'S DATA PHOTOS TAKEN SO FAR WATER DATA Gulf of Mexico Water Depth: 1.2 meters Wash Island Magellan GPS Location: Half way Back Magellan GPS Location: |
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Day 15
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