A popular day trip from Sarasota this time of year is to travel to the Tampa area or Ft. Myers to see the manatees. Once the water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico drops below 68 degrees, the manatees move inland searching for warm water. Either they head to the springs, which are a continuous 72 degrees year-round, or they maneuver their way to the channels near the electric company plants where warm water is discharged. I was in Ft. Myers yesterday near the Florida Power and Light plant and saw....
dozens and dozens (and dozens!) of manatees. Sea cows, as they're affectionately, known are so gosh darn cute -- and huge. It's common for them to weigh about 1,000 pounds and eat 8-11% of their weight every day in vegetation. That's about 100 pounds of sea grass!
12 comments:
I just said OMG outloud! That's so amazing and COOL! I had no idea you could see so many of these in the wild...all in one place! Such a great photo. If I stare at it long enough, I swear I can almost see them moving. I LOVE manatee Monday!
Dang so many. I have seen one in a tank, lol.
Happy Valentines Day
I was thinking about this great photo later in the morning and I realized that I'm one of the readers who voted that you should stay within the Sarasota area. I take it back! (hangs head in shame)
I love them! We have manatees up here in the St. Marks River, but I have never seen that many together at one time. These are wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing!
Great catch. That's a lot of manatees together.
They seem to be gentle giants! Wonderful catch.
I used to live in Port Saint Lucie. They would come up and suck my toes when I was waiting in the water for the water ski boat. They are such friendly creatures. And so sweet to look at.
They seem to be such sweet creatures. What a great photo opportunity you had!
SRQ, why didn't you stop in? You have a blogger firend living right there.
I agree, they are just the best. I'd love to see them in person. Great shots.
V
That's a whole lotta manatees!
Wonderful
work
good creations
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