Manatee Park Ft Myers

Jan, and her son-in-law Steve, drove up from Venice for a visit and to see the Manatees at the Electric Generation Plant just north of Ft Myers. It turns out that their visit could not have been more timely.

The weather has been colder than usual the last few days, and the Gulf water temperature dropped a few degrees. The manatees prefer warmer waters, so the local Manatees go to the electric plant generation station spill waters, created to dilute the excess heat from the generating plant, This water is fast flowing and considerably warmer that the river it flows into. The river itself is warmer than the gulf so it is quite a sight to see these large slow moving Mammals arriving to warm themselves.

This next picture shows the back third of one of these giants; you can see the outline of the spade-like tail on the left.

Next is a better look at the tail itself, essentially a flat spade-like fin.

The right side of the next picture shows the head with the nostrils just breaking above the water.

The babies stay by their Moms for more than a year, and I suspect that this is a mother and older child surfacing for a quick breath of air at the same time.

In a small lagune further away from the water outlet, the water was considerably shallower and you can see these giants under the water a little better.  Note the large spade-like tail on the left.

And lastly, you can see the many injuries that this Manatee suffered over the years: they appear as lighter yellowish scars where the manatee was struck by a fast boat or worse, a propeller. 

Manatees are protected and are slowly losing their battle with boats big and small. Large seagoing ships can strike them because they are quite slow moving. Faster moving speed boats also do a lot of damage since the manatees usually swim just below the surface, within striking distance of many propellers.

Interestingly enough, in past years we have seen manatees in heavy boating areas, and even in large marinas between moored boats. 

Nearing lunch time, we drove back to Ft Myers to an old favourite fish place called the Skip One: the fish is all fresh caught, mostly by local fishermen. The lunch menu is reasonable in price and in size so we all ate well and returned to our place for a bit. We drove to an area where you can enjoy a pleasant walk with relocated store-bought orchids tied to the swamp trees on either side of the boardwalk. Joan counted the orchids a few days back and we feel that there are at least an extra 30 or so plants more than last year. With all the spikes in evidence, it should be quite a show before we leave at the end of March. 

Of course, supper was at 'Blu Sushi' where everyone ordered Zulu Shrimp during Happy Hour and we all left quite happy indeed. We had taken two vehicles, and were extremely lucky to eventually find two parking spots, so after loving hugs, Jan and Steve drove back to Venice, and we headed home to unbox a puzzle...

What fun!