Regina's Original Narrative

    “Regina” I asked myself “why are you awake at the crack of dawn shivering in a bait shop in the beginning of January?” The cold was confusing the mood. For weeks I had been anxiously looking forward to this trip, literally counting down the days, but now the reality of the situation was sinking in. I was waiting for the rest of the group to show with my best friend Kelli, who had just flown in from Denver. Earlier I had realized the uselessness of complaining about a Florida winter to someone from Colorado.

    Eventually the group converged and we embarked on our journey up the Crystal River in search of the great manatee. Before we could board our vessels the dive instructor ran through the ground rules of our voyage, he embellished them with “actual” anecdotes of horrible accidents that occurred when people failed to follow the rules. It was hard not to find them a little amusing.

    Once on the water I was exposed to a whole new category of cold. The sound of the boats drowned out any attempt of conversation, leaving us nothing to kill the time except stewing in our own nervous excitement and fighting the bite of the penetrating wind. And so we waited.

    Soon we entered the spots which were home to the majority of the local manatee. Our speed subsided and we began are search. And again we waited. Roughly an hour into our search we came upon two who bothered to rouse from their slumber and find a bite to eat. I had just begun to think that we were the only ones stupid enough to be out this early.

    The moment of truth was now before us and nothing sounded more unappealing than diving into the cold, dark water. Despite the shivering we managed to zip up our wet suits and proceeded to the front of the boat. Once we got the “o.k.” from the guides we followed the precession and finally dove into the murky depths.

    I was barely a novice diver and found it exceedingly difficult to stay near the surface to keep from kicking up more mud. I slowly fumbled my way along toward the group and suddenly swam into a very large mass, thinking it was someone from the boat I immediately looked up only to find a manatee staring me in the face. This was not the first impression I was hoping to make. I slowly backed up and saw the mammoth sea beast was about 9 feet long and weighed in close to a thousand pounds. Without hesitation I pulled out my under water camera and snapped off a few shots. Overwhelmed with awe and oblivious to my surroundings I continued backwards and rammed into the other manatee. This one was a tad smaller and quite pregnant. After a few pictures of her, I took my leave of these two and retired to the boat.

    Once the entire group was aboard, we moved on to the 'crystal' portions of the Crystal River. Now I had my second attempt in the water, this time, with a much better view. I was stunned at my first site of the gathering. At least 12 manatees piled on top of each, it was hard to tell one from the other. The collective mass of the grouping appeared gargantuan.

    We took a ton of pictures. There was a mother swimming with it’s baby whom she was feeding, seemingly unmoved by the gathering of people. The baby was adorable, and a real show off. She played and swam around in between people, around the cameras, thoroughly happy with the rubbing and attention. She was so small compared to any of the others we had seen that day. It was hard not to fall in love with her.

    We returned to the boat around 9 am. It is still hard to believe that the entire experience lasted only three hours. Back at the bait shop we watched our under water movie, it was moving. It’s not everyday that we get to feel so in touch with nature. The creatures were so graceful, and so quiet. However, it was difficult not to feel a little disruptive swimming among them. It finally put things into perspective for me, realizing just how invasive humans can be.

Regina's Original Narrative