Looking for Manatees Location:Crystal River, Florida Day 5 by Wayne Brown

I talked to Susan Butler, this morning, about the mother and calf. She said there is a problem. Fortunately there is no problem with the mother and calf. The problem is with the radio transmitter tag. When Susan downloaded the satellite tracking data she discovered that the batteries are quickly running down and will soon go dead. She must now repack all the equipment she just unpacked, find the mother and calf, take off the transmitter, and replace it with one that has good batteries.

Today's Manatee Search: The weather here is beautiful. I hear that those of you in California are having cold weather and rain. Of course those of you the mid-west, you're freezing! Down here I am wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sandals. I am perfectly comfortable in this weather. Unfortunately the manatees are perfectly comfortable, too. When the water and weather are warm the manatees are snoozing and munching on underwater plants anywhere they want. Only when the water and weather are cold do they look for warm fresh water springs to warm up.

We went looking for manatees at our favorite manatee hang out, Three Sisters Springs. The springs are called "Three Sisters", because there are three springs close to each other. On the way to the springs we didn't see any manatees swimming in the canal. We didn't see any manatees in the springs. In fact, we didn't see any manatees at all! We did see some other animal that share this Florida wetlands environment with the manatees. (Karen will tell you about them.) Without the manatees to distract me I was able to collect some water data. (Look at the data column.)

Compare the water data from Three Sisters Springs to the water data I collected from Mission Bay, San Diego, California. (See "Expedition Log - 1/22/99".) I used a salinity refractometer to determine my water samples' density and salinity. (To calibrate the refractometer I used distilled water. Distilled water has a density of 1.00 and a salinity of 0.00 NaCl ppt.) I used a secchi disk to determine water depth and visibility. I tried to determine only vertical water visibility,but I discovered that every place I checked I could see all the way to the bottom. In the middle of the canal the water looks very deep. I found out the water is not deep. It only looks deep because there is a dark, brown, sludge-like algae that is covering the bottom of the canal. These are underwater plants I think the manatees would spit out if they put them in their mouths. After spending some time in Three Sisters Springs, we paddled back to our base.

The next time we look for manatees we will be guaranteed to see them! Find out why when you log on with us next week!

Here we are in our Cobra kayaks. Our equipment is loaded on our kayaks and we are ready to look for manatees. (Notice that we wear Lotus Designs PFD's for safety.)

Our Cobra kayaks make it easy to navigate through narrow streams. (I am approaching the main spring at Three Sisters Springs.)

looking for the deepest spot to drop in the seechi disk to check water depth and visibility. (The white disk in my hand is attached to a measured and marked line.)

TODAY'S DATA
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Crystal River, FL
Morning Air Temp: 50ºF
Afternoon Air Temp: 76ºF
Water Temp: 73.3ºF
Weather: overcast with high clouds, by afternoon sunny with scattered clouds
Total manatees seen: 29

PHOTOS TAKEN SO FAR
Digital Photos
(Above water): 103
Digital Photos
(Underwater): 50
Film Photos
(Above water): 396
Film Photos
(Underwater): 22
Rolls of film shot
(36 exposures): 11 rolls

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