CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. — It is no secret: Crystal River is the manatee capital of Florida. A whole lot of individuals go to the realm to see the mild giants.
What may shock you, nevertheless, are their migration patterns.
After Hurricane Idalia, their most important meals supply, eelgrass, took a tough hit. And now, the manatees are on the transfer looking for meals and heat. So what is the outlook in your meals supply?
An area professional who research sea cows year-round has an thought: a job that requires diving beneath the floor.
“I feel they’ll be just a little thinner.”
For 10 years and counting, Mike Engiles has been providing manatee excursions in Crystal River. However this yr may very well be a problem for the animals after Hurricane Idalia.
“They will must work and go additional to get meals within the winter,” says Engiles, proprietor of Crystal River Watersports.
The highly effective storm worn out a lot of their meals supply.
“Whereas the manatees have been right here in Magnolia, they’d a heat water supply, however in addition they had a meals supply very shut by,” Engiles says. “This yr they will not have that luxurious.”
Now, Engiles says the mild giants might be pressured to go away the snug, heat waters close to the coast and enter the gulf to seek for meals.
“Manatees come to the Crystal River space for heat water refuge,” he mentioned. “They do not have a number of physique fats and so they must be protected against the colder gulf temperatures right here.”
About six years in the past, Save Crystal River started a mission to avoid wasting the bay, planting eel nearer to shore so the manatees may have heat and meals.
“Sadly, this yr Idalia put an finish to that,” Engiles mentioned. “The intrusion of salt water destroyed the vegetation and greenery. However we do not imagine it has been nipped within the bud.”
Along with his tourism enterprise, Engiles is a component of a bigger community of captains and guides referred to as the Manatee Eco Tourism Affiliation.
“After we, as an business, see manatees that we imagine are at risk, we attempt to doc it with movies, photos and identification marks and report it to that community in order that selections may be made about whether or not a rescue is critical,” he mentioned. saying.
It is nonetheless early within the manatee viewing season, which Engiles mentioned started in mid-December. However some issues already stand out.
“We have already seen some skinny manatees and there are a pair we’re keeping track of proper now,” he mentioned.
Engiles shared a video with us and, as you’ll be able to think about, recognizing sea cows this season has been very easy. A promising sight, because it maintains hope in the way forward for its meals supply.
“I totally anticipate it’ll begin rising once more within the spring,” Engiles mentioned. “We’ll know shortly, most likely in late March or early April.”
And saving manatees, as Engiles says, begins with educating everybody.
“If everybody who goes out and swims with the manatees turns into an environmentalist and desires to guard their atmosphere and the manatees themselves, that might be a reasonably good day,” he mentioned.
It’s what Engiles will proceed to defend on every tour.