The manatees need temperatures above 68 degrees and the Blue Springs is a constant 72 degrees. So in the winter as the St. John River cools off, the manatees come into the spring run to sleep and stay warm and only swim down to the St Johns River to eat. And eat they do! Up to 100 pounds of greens (water plants) each day.
The spring is oxygen deficient. Nothing grows there and only animals that have learned to come to the surface to breath are able to stay there. The fish we see swimming here pop to the surface and gasp.
Every morning Manatee Research comes out and does an approximate count of the manatees that spent the night in the run. There were 17 manatees in the run the night before our first visit; but the second morning the temps were in the 30's and we got there before 9 and saw many in the run. The count that day was 45.
It was fun to watch about 18 of these slow moving cows swimming close to the area of the dock we were standing on. There were a lot of small ones nuzzling up to nurse under mama's flipper. Several of them were moving under a floating log. Whether playing or scratching their back we don't know. And there were 8 of them under the dock. Maybe they were chomping on the moss on the pilings? Think maybe these two were kissing?
Had heard that the manatees were brought to this country to keep waterways clear but I wasn't able to find anything to substantiate that. Not even sure how they could have been transported. Though these manatees are called the West Indian manatees, they have been in Florida for many eras.And, oh, yes, the Florida manatee species is being moved from "endangered" to "threatened". That is good news!
You can see pictures from our previous visit to Blue Springs http://www.geocities.com/wanderingsingers/wintertrekfeb2005.htm
A few things have changed at this park in two years - must be new park management. They won't let people in the water by boat or to swim or scuba dive in the winter when manatees might be in the spring run. And they have strung float lines across the run in about 6 places. And they won't let RV's camp in the park if they are larger than 30'. (Campground was 90% empty and 90% of the spots would have easily fit us. This may be a ploy that the chief ranger can use to talk his bosses into park improvements by telling them how many campers they had to turn away because the campsites were too small. Whatever.)
