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 But as tolerant as the gentle, whiskered sea giants can be of the
accidental kicks and splashes of delighted tourists, wild life
regulators want to ban most canoes and paddle boards and create
people-free zones to protect the wintering "sea cow."
Proposed limitations for this winter are awaiting approval by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"It's kind of a madhouse," said Kimberly Sykes, assistant manager of
the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, which includes Three
Sisters Springs. "People are just bumping into manatees, because
they can't see them."
Manatees flock to warm water sites when temperatures in other places
fall below 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius). Without
refuge from cold water, the mammals can become stressed to the point
of death.
Refuge managers know of no other place where people can fearlessly
interact with a wild animal weighing as much as 1,200 pounds (550
kilograms) for a $50 boat ride, just a two-hour drive from the
beaches of Tampa Bay and Orlando's theme parks.
While they want to preserve an experience that has created countless
lovers of the species, they also want to protect the manatees, a
beloved state symbol in Florida.
"If you do it, it's not hard to be in favor of trying to protect the
creatures," said 63-year-old visitor Bill Noellert of McLean,
Virginia, deeply moved by a recent plunge.
Overcrowding, both human and animal, has become hard to ignore at
Three Sisters Springs. The 1.5 acre (6,000 square meter) waters are
drawing record numbers of manatees seeking to warm up in waters that
are heated by springs and are constantly 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
In 2013, more than 125,000 people came to swim with the subspecies
of the West Indian manatee, according to wildlife managers, almost
double the number three years earlier. On some days, as many as 100
tourists an hour splash there.
"We've got more people. We've got more manatees. What we don't have
is more space," said boat captain Michael Birns, president of the
Manatee EcoTourism Association of Citrus County.
On a recent morning, snorkelers bobbed beside a pair of mating
manatees, hugging floatation noodles so as to avoid kicking up silt
in a shallow area known as "Pretty Sister."
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On a kayak, a volunteer for the Fish and Wildlife Service joked
about being a traffic cop, while a tour guide yanked away a swimmer
who kicked a manatee passing beneath her.
"They are very unique as a mammal in that they are so tolerant of
people in this area," said refuge manager Andrew Gude, adding that
the manatees do not appear to be suffering harm.
Still, wildlife managers want to rope off "Pretty Sister" through
the end of March, while allowing deeper areas to remain open, and
restrict tourists to the hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Under other Fish and Wildlife Service protections being discussed,
only visitors with disabilities would be allowed to take kayaks,
canoes and paddle boards into the springs. It is not known how
quickly the new restrictions may win approval.
Some conservationists would like to go even further and see the
springs closed all winter.
Tour operators object to closing parts of the springs without
setting a limit on the total number of swimmers, while some local
boaters angry over nearby speed limits filed a lawsuit last year to
get the manatee downgraded from an endangered to a threatened
species.
"I don't know how you are going to protect this one," said Jerry
Sirley, 72, of West Sussex in the United Kingdom, who planned a
recent Florida vacation around the manatee encounter.
"I'm just glad we got to it before everyone else has ruined it," he
said.
(Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Steve
Orlofsky)
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