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| Three Sisters Spring Manatee |
There is nothing worst than a moron with initiative...a moron with authority. Did not have a good day today. This was easily the worst kayaking trip we have had. While usually I try to stay on the positive side this time it has been very difficult. Too many wrong things....but will try to make lemonade from lemons and just to let you know, the pic above was the best one we were able to obtain.
Put In/ Take Out: Please, check this link; Crystal River 11/8, for Put In and Take Out information. Anyways that post is way better than this one.
Put In/ Take Out: Please, check this link; Crystal River 11/8, for Put In and Take Out information. Anyways that post is way better than this one.
This trip was planned as the last one of the year, the closer. Cold night, the breeze was not too strong, and a light chop forecast at King's Bay were enough to make me decide to travel back to Crystal River. Was expecting some more of what we got on November 8th this year, when we had a heck of a morning at this same place. Today it was different on the bad side. It was crowded, extremely crowded, the water levels were very low, and the visibility was poor as best. And that was enough to ruin the trip. If you compare the pics on this post and the ones from the other, the difference is from here to the sky. Very frustrating day. That being said, here are the few pics we were able to obtain.
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| Sea Gull |
99.9% of the people at the spring area today were touching the manatees while the people in charge of the order and good behavior looked the other way. I guess that if you are wearing a wet suit and/or a phone number in your kayak validating that it is a rental, you can pretty much do whatever you want there. The sediments on the water ruined the pics. But lesson learned. If you want to enjoy this location and its beauty, do not go there during the peak of the tourist season here. It does not worth it. I am going to leave it like that. Not going to bash an industry that leaves so much money to the area. Even when I think there are many wrong things being done there. All those pics were shot at or just outside the Three Sister's Spring area. The following pics complete this post...
And that is it for this one. Thanks for reading and hope you come back soon. We hope to have one more trip before the end of the year. Come back for this one so we can share more Views From Our Kayak.
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| Mallards |
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| Lesser Scaup (males) |
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| Sea Gull |
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| Killdeer |
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| Warbler (Yellow-Rumped???) |
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| Manatee swimming outside Three Sister's Spring |
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| Saw at least three of these tracking devices today |
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| Eastern Phoebe |
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| Eastern Phoebe |
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| Osprey |
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| Cormorant's lunch time |
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| Set... |
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| Gulp!!!!! |
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| Brown Pelican |
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| Brown Pelican |
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| Wood Stork |
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| Wood Stork |
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| Sea Gull |
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| Brown Pelicans |
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| Great Blue Heron |
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| Brown Pelicans |
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| Juvenile Brown Pelican |
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| Brown Pelican |
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| Brown Pelican |
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| Lesser Scaups |
And that is it for this one. Thanks for reading and hope you come back soon. We hope to have one more trip before the end of the year. Come back for this one so we can share more Views From Our Kayak.
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| Female Lesser Scaup |
Oh, bash the industry. I would. ;)
ReplyDeleteI must contain myself from going off. It was not a good experience Master Dave. Definitely money is the root of all evil, and stupidity too.
DeleteWe have had similar experiences with Crystal River as well. Nothing like too much humanity and "Barney Fife" "officials" ruining the peace and quiet that must have existed there at one time.
ReplyDeleteHad to Google Barney Fife to understand what did you mean. LOL!!!! You nailed it!!!!
DeleteBut you are allowed to touch manatees there. It's the only place in Florida where you'd allowed to, which I completely disagree with. Those laws are in place for a reason everywhere else, but "ecotourism" dollars always seem to take precedence over the endangered wildlife they rely on. It's quite upsetting. I understand how awesome it must be to get to swim with them, and I used to realllly want to go do it until I saw aerial photos of Three Sisters Spring and the surrounding areas where manatees are packed like sardines in the roped off areas that allow them to escape the incessant pressures of over-eager swimmers and boaters. Those photos just spoke volumes to me and made me so sad. Even if people aren't actively harming them, it's still just too much pressure (in my opinion) and I have to believe it affects them. I'd love to kayak and swim with them, I just feel like it's better for them to have one less person there.
ReplyDelete(PS- I'm not insulting you for going there, I'm just talking about the bigger picture of that whole area this time of year)
I know you are not insulting me Octohawk but thanks for the PS. :)
DeleteAfter this trip I truly understand what you say. When I was there on Nov 8th there were not too many people(actually it was me an another guy in the water) and a couple of kayakers. I saw the manatees from a distance and only one of them came to me while I was in the water. There were no harassing and the animals did not have to run to the the roped area for shelter. So I admit here that did not see it the way you described on your comment at the other post. This time I did see it. Do not like what I saw.
I may be wrong but if my memory does not trick me there is a sign that says it is prohibited to touch a manatee. It may say "while is feeding or resting", which for me is just a semantic trick. To make things worst the people in charge there seem to be playing favorites. If you are in a kayak with a phone number on it(a rental), or you are wearing a wet suit, they will leave you alone. If not, good luck trying to enjoy the moment...they will be in your case and watching each and every move you make.
I just discovered your photo blog and it's awesome. I could peruse this for hours! This is what I'd love to do. I've started kayaking the last few years (mostly in GA and FL) and enjoy taking photos of the amazing scenery and wildlife I see on my trips. I bought a small waterproof point-and-shoot Pentax camera for my paddling trips, which takes decent photos but nothing like yours, I guess mainly because of my limited zoom capabilities. I also have a Nikon D40 I could bring but I'm worried about it getting wet or just being a bulky hassle that gets in the way. Please tell me what you use when paddling. I'm assuming you have a digital SLR camera of some kind, but do you also have a zoom lens or a waterproof case or anything else. Does it get in the way much while you paddle? I've seen inexpensive little clear plastic dry bags you can put around a camera but wasn't sure how well those work. Or maybe you don't use any waterproof protection, but just paddle and enter/exit your kayak carefully, I don't know. Any advice on photographing wildlife while paddling would be much appreciated. Thanks for any advice and for your superb photos/blog, Jon Becker
ReplyDeleteWe have an old Canon T2i and an Olympus Tough for the underwater pics(that one I do not like too much but cannot afford another one right now). No special case, we just try not to tip over :) ....So far so good and knock on wood.
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