Hundreds of Florida Manatees (Trichechus manatus) are making their way into Blue Spring State Park today in advance of cool weather overspreading Florida.
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Manatees seek the relative warmth of Blue Spring when infrequent cool weather visits Florida. The spring is a constant, year-round, 72° F. (22° C).
The park at Blue Spring is massive, covering some 2,600 acres, including the largest spring on the St. John's River. It includes miles of trails through the thick Florida hammock of Sabal palmettos and live oaks.
Unfortunately the arrival of cool weather this year has coincided with the races in Daytona (30 miles east) and thus if you want to visit Blue Spring to commune with the manatees expect long lines of cars to get into the park and throngs of noisy and sometimes obnoxious tourists once you do get in. It is best to go very early or very late. The park is open this week from 8:00 am until sundown, daily. Sundown occurs around 6:30 pm. Admission fee is $6.00 per vehicle.
Blue Spring is a first magnitude spring on the St. John's River. Gold Rush prospector turned orange-grower Louis Thursby purchased Blue Spring in 1856. Before the railroad rolled through in the 1880s, Thursby's Blue Spring Landing was a hotbed of steamboat activity, shipping tourists and goods to Jacksonville and beyond.
Mrs. Thursby was Orange City's first postmistress. 'The Forgotten Mermaids', an episode of the Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau, was filmed here in 1971. The documentary brought attention to the manatee and the importance of Blue Spring as a winter refuge, greatly influencing the state's decision to purchase the land.
A group of manatees over the boil at Blue Spring. The logs laying over the boil have been there for hundreds of years. The water emerging from the spring is mostly devoid of oxygen thus preserving everything found therein. As children and teenagers we would see who could swim down and touch the logs, 20 feet or so (7 m) below the surface of the spring.
Florida Cold
What is bringing cold weather to Florida?
Another in a series of El Niño generated low pressure systems is forecast to evolve over the northeastern Bahamas tonight.
The cold high pressure ridge over the Gulf Coast states and southeast USA will weaken and get squeezed northeastward. The old frontal boundary from the last storm currently resides over the Florida Straits and Central Bahamas.
The new low is forecast to develop somewhere near the southeast Florida/northern Bahamas tonight. This feature will begin to move northeastward and strengthen. Development of the low will be induced by a vigorous (strong) mid-level trough presently over Texas. The trough will move across the north Gulf of Mexico during the day on Saturday, February 6th and cross the Florida Peninsula into February 7th early morning.
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| Cool rains developing over Florida as Low Pressure forms over NE Bahamas and Subtropical Jet Stream digs in aloft. |
Further aloft a strong 120-130 knot upper level sub-tropical jet stream will dig in over north-central Florida.
Dynamics are strong this system but thermodynamics are less than with the last few systems as temperatures/dewpoints remain low. At the very least the low will drag in more cool air from the continental USA and drop temperatures into the 30s for Sunday night to Monday morning (February 8, 2016). Reinforcing shots of cool air will follow with the coolest temperatures (near freezing) occurring Wednesday-Thursday (February 10-11, 2016).
This cool weather will insure that manatees are present in Blue Spring for the forecastable future.
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| MANATEE ISLAND Often the manatees gather in groups and flop all over each other creating this island-effect. |
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| Manatees and their babies (calfs). |
The Florida manatee, Florida’s state marine mammal, is a large aquatic relative of the elephant. They are grayish brown in color and have thick, wrinkled skin on which there is often a growth of algae. Their front flippers help them steer, or sometimes crawl, through shallow water. They also have powerful, flat tails that help propel them through the water. Despite their small eyes and lack of outer ears, manatees are thought to see and hear quite well.
Like other grazing animals, Florida manatees play an important role in influencing the plant growth in the shallow rivers, bays, estuaries, canals and coastal waters they call home.
MANATEE DIET
Manatees only have molars, which are used to grind food. As they wear down and fall out, they are replaced with new teeth.
Manatees are herbivores, with a diet consisting mostly of sea grasses and freshwater vegetation.
Population
MANATEE CENSUS
Although there is no precise census of Florida manatees, today’s population is estimated at approximately 5,000 individuals.
MANATEE RANGE AND HABITAT
Manatees can be found in the warm waters of shallow rivers, bays, estuaries and coastal waters. Rarely do individuals venture into waters below 68°F. (20° C).
MANATEE RANGE AND HABITAT
Manatees take up residence primarily in Florida’s coastal waters during winter. Some individuals migrate as far north as the Carolinas or as far west as Louisiana in summer. Manatees have swum as far north as Cape Cod, Massachusetts in recent years.
MANATEE BEHAVIOR
Manatees only breathe through their nostrils, since while they are underwater their mouths are occupied with eating! A manatee's lungs are 2/3 the length of its body.
Well known for their gentle, slow-moving nature, manatees have also been known to body surf or barrel roll when playing. They normally rest and feed often. Manatees communicate by squealing under water to demonstrate fear, stress or excitement.
MANATEE REPRODUCTION
Calves are born weighing between 60 and 70 pounds and measuring about 3-4 feet long. They nurse underwater.
THREATS TO FLORIDA MANATESS
These gentle marine giants face a number of threats to their survival, almost exclusively caused by humans.
Watercraft Collisions
The leading human-caused threat to Florida manatees is collisions with watercraft. Propellers and boat hulls inflict serious or mortal wounds, and most manatees have a pattern of scars on their backs or tails after surviving collisions with boats. Scientists believe that unless this cause of death is controlled, the manatee population will never recover.
Habitat Loss
The greatest long-term threat to manatees involves the loss of warm-water habitat that manatees need to survive. At temperatures below 68 degrees Fahrenheit, the stress of the cold can become dangerous, or even fatal. Over the past 10 years, Florida’s manatees have had higher-than-usual numbers of deaths from cold stress. The winter of 2010 saw a total of 766 manatees killed, nearly 300 of them by an extended period of very cold weather.
Because residential development has greatly reduced the flow from natural warm water springs used by manatees to stay warm, as much as two-thirds of the manatee population relies on the warm-water outfalls at electric power plants on cold winter days. A large number of manatees could be lost in the next few decades if natural areas are not available to manatees as aging plants are shut down or experience equipment failures. Their survival will depend on protecting natural springs and healthy habitat.
Harassment
When humans disturb manatees, it can cause them to alter their breeding, feeding, sheltering and other natural behaviors, and puts them in harm’s way. Feeding manatees; using water to attract manatees to a boat, dock or marina; separating a mother and her calf; disturbing resting or mating manatees; chasing them from warm water sites; hitting or poking manatees; jumping on, standing on, holding onto or riding the animals - all of these actions can cause manatees serious harm.
Red Tide
Red tide is a naturally occurring event that begins offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, when large amounts of certain species of algae bloom. Exacerbated by human wastes including fertilizers and sewage Red Tides have become more frequent and deadly.
This algae contains natural neurotoxins, which can be dangerous to humans and local wildlife. Once the bloom moves closer to shore, nutrient pollutants in agricultural or urban runoff can make the problem worse by fueling larger and more persistent blooms. Manatees come into contact with red tide in the shallow waters in southwest Florida. They can inhale red tide neurotoxins when they surface to breathe, and ingest them when they eat seagrass coated by the algae. The toxins cause seizures that, if severe enough, can prevent manatees from lifting their snouts above the water to breathe, which causes them to drown.
2013 was the deadliest year on record for manatees – more than 830 animals died. An unprecedented number of these marine mammals died from a large and persistent red tide outbreak in southwest Florida, while many more manatees have perished in Brevard County on Florida’s Atlantic coast following a massive dieoff of seagrass, their main food source.
You can keep track of manatee mortality statistics, by reviewing manatee the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's website.
RESOURCES
SAVE THE MANATEE CLUB and DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE are leading the fight to protect Florida manatees and against the proposed removal of the Florida Manatee from the Endangered Species List. As part of their bulldozing-of-Florida effort Republicans are pushing to have the Florida Manatee taken off the Endangered Species List so that they might destroy more natural manatee habitat for financial gain.
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