These new manatee protection signs are popping up all around Crystal River, Florida. While signs to watch for manatees and a limited number of educational kiosks have been placed in coastal areas throughout Florida, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has raised the bar with these excellent signs!
Three-panel manatee protection sign at a boat launch. Put up by USFWS, Crystal River, Florida.
The new manatee cover photograph for Alert Diver Magazine, photographer of the week on Dive Photo Guide and the results of testing out the new Xperia phone for Sony underwater; all this has resulted in a lot of recent “buzz” about my manatee photographs. I thought I’d shed a little more light on myself and what I do.
Of course, all this is in addition to the comprehensive collection of manatee images on my own website: Oceangrant.com
Selfie — Carol Grant Waiting For Manatees On A Cold Morning
Movies often evoke dramatic thoughts and pictures, even years later. Such is the case when I saw the movie “The Godfather”. In a suspenseful moment, after Sal Tessio retrieved a package including a fish, Clemenza says , “It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.” I must admit I got chills when I first saw it and I never forgot that scene. But now something’s changed and I can’t quite conjure up the drama connected with that scene. Why, you ask? I think this photograph will explain why…
Manatee Sleeps With The Fishes — January 10, 2014
Manatees “sleep with fishes” and they do seem to enjoy it so!
Today is Friday the 13th! Though superstition calls for this to be an unlucky day, my experience is it usually has a strong element of luck to it! CC the Manatee was lucky he had so many people concerned during his rehabilitation and after his release — but two weeks ago CC was unlucky enough to encounter what was thought to be a speeding boat, ending his life.
CC the Manatee Finding His Way After Release
Orphaned and weighing only 55 pounds, CC was rescued from the Caloosahatchee River in Ft. Myers, Florida on July 1, 2006. Many manatees that small have a hard time surviving after rescue, but CC triumphed! You could call him a very lucky manatee. Continue reading
Manatees are undoubtedly charismatic creatures! People love manatees, or expressed in more modern jargon: we “heart ♥” manatees. Did you know there are researchers who literally “heart” manatees?
On-Site Field Electrocardiography Of A Manatee’s Heart
Every year dive professionals from all over the world converge at the annual Dive Equipment & Marketing Association (DEMA) show, held on alternate years, in Orlando, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada. The breadth and diversity of the show would take hours to report, so I’ll focus in on one thing “speaking manatee”.
Manatee Glass Charm Worn by Carol to Get The Conversation Started
My first point of contact was someone I met through social media. Facebook has the potential to link like-minds that may not normally ever meet, through the communication channel of cyberspace. Bernie Campoli is a historical diver and is part of the group of sea heroes I dreamed of meeting, years ago. Come to find out Bernie also helped with research projects on the Florida manatee in the 1980s. This is Bernie’s photograph on this classic manatee poster:
Manatees gather together in the wintertime at various warm water sites around Florida. Some of these manatees frequent natural freshwater springs. Fish also enjoy congregating near the outflows of spring water. It is here that manatees and a number of fish species share the same watery real estate until the weather warms and manatees spread out again. While together in the springs fish often surround manatees as illustrated in this photograph:
Fish Gather Around A Manatee In The Springs
Interaction between fish and manatees is an interesting behavior to observe. In fact some fish, particularly bream also known as sunfish (Lepomis spp.) and sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus) are known to continually surround and peck at the manatee’s skin especially while they are resting. Note the bream below are nipping this manatee:
Manatees are curious, gentle, charismatic, and appealing marine mammals, and manatee kids are ten-times so! Whether it’s investigating everything around and about, learning the art of flipper-turning, demonstrating new buoyancy and swimming skills, fine-tuning snout rubbing, meeting other manatees, exploring or just being the subject of its mother’s pride, manatee kid’s antics are just plan cute!
Here are my Top 10 Cute Manatee Kids (all linked from my new Oceangrant.com website that includes many additional photographs of manatee calf cuteness):
#10 – Mother Manatee with Calf Behind – How cute is this? Not only are this mother manatee and her male calf floating peacefully with beautiful reflections in the calm waters, but junior has his snout touching mom’s behind. Awwwww!