By Nancy Sadusky, Director of Online Communications
Save the Manatee Club
Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a manatee researcher? On most days from November through March, Wayne Hartley, Save the Manatee Club’s Manatee Specialist, takes a canoe trip down the run at Blue Spring State Park. He is recording the manatees who visit the park during the winter.
The manatees rely on the spring’s warm water, which maintains a constant temperature of approximately 72° F. This makes the spring run an important winter habitat for manatees when the nearby St. Johns River cools into the mid 60s or below. Manatees need warm water to survive. In spite of their size, they have relatively little body fat, and their metabolic rate is low compared to other marine mammals. They can’t tolerate temperatures below 68° F for long periods of time.
On this day, I am riding along with Wayne. It should be a good day for manatee watching as it has been chilly recently, with air temperatures in the 50s and 60s. The first thing we do is go out to take the water temperature of the St. Johns River, which is only 61 degrees. Brrrr!
As we start to paddle down the spring run, the first manatee we observe is Lucille, an adoptee in Save the Manatee Club's Adopt-A-Manatee program. Wayne said she is located in the exact same spot as she was yesterday. We also see Slip, a 21-year-old captive-born manatee who had been released at Blue Spring in early February. Slip has been fitted with a satellite tracking device, and we can see it bobbing in the water. Slip was born at SeaWorld Orlando in 1991, and he was released into the wild for the first time in January 2010. He had to be rescued after 23 months however. “Slip was released with the other manatees at Blue Spring, but when it got cold, they came back and researchers had to go and get Slip and bring him back to the run," says Wayne. "He appeared to get it, but by the fall of 2011, no Slip. Then he turned up in Crescent Lake with a boat hit and cold stress." Biologists hope that Slip will hang out with the other wild manatees at Blue Spring and imitate their behavior. He wears the tracking device so they can monitor his activities.
Besides Slip, Wayne also identifies Adam, Bon Bon, Mangle, Arnold, and Phud, who is the brother of Phyllis, an SMC adoptee, and the son of Phoebe, a former SMC adoptee. Most of the manatees are down near the end of the run, and Wayne circles around as he made notes on who is present. “I think that was Flash over there,” he says. “Here’s Paddy Doyle, and Amanda, and Margarito is right below us. And here’s Georgia and U66, the orphaned calf she adopted.” At the end of December, the calf had white patches all over his body, indicating that he was suffering from cold stress. However, Wayne thought he was looking better. He takes some video with an underwater camera to check the calf’s condition.
At this point, the wind picks up and creates ripples on the surface of the water, which makes manatee identification difficult, so we head to the more-protected left side of the run. There we find several manatees hanging out under tree limbs that dangle over the water, including Slip, Conan, Robin, Lily, and Ann and her new calf, born on February 7th. We also encounter “Big Blue,” the park’s resident 14-foot-alligator, who is resting near the bank! We decide to ease slooowly away and move on down the run.
Soon we see Africa, Vague, 88, and Sharon, who swims up to the canoe to say hello. “Well, aren’t we sweet today,” says Wayne. “I can tell you have been out and away from the spring because you’ve got green algae on you.” Next in line is Zuzu. “Oh, oh, we need to get away as she upsets easily,” said Wayne. He explains that Zuzu used to be “comma-shaped” because her lung had been swollen on one side. He is pleased to note that she seems to be doing okay now.
After that, we see Gator and Dante. Gator was named when he was seen chasing an alligator in the spring run, and even I can identify him, because he has several, large noticeable scars from boat hits on his back. “Last season he came in with a horrendous scar pattern and then got hit again on top of it,” says Wayne. We hear several big splashes and turn to see a cavorting group of manatees about three-quarters of the way down the run. Wayne says that sometimes occurs when a bunch of juveniles get together with a female manatee. Visitors are clustered at the lookout decks, and one woman shouts out, “Are they all present and accounted for?” We laugh, and then she asks how we could tell the difference between all the manatees. Wayne explains that they are identified by their scars.
We paddle to the boil where the water is shallow and clear, but no manatees, only schools of small fish. “If the manatees were being cooperative, they would be up here where I could see them better,” says Wayne. We turn around and head back. Near the observation deck, we help out visitors by retrieving two canes and a pink flip-flop that have fallen in the water. Wayne also uses an underwater camera to film S-181, Gator, S-92, Bart, and 88, as they hang around the canoe. “Gator is one of those manatees who wants to get into everything,” said Wayne. "If other manatees start playing, he shoots up the run to see what is going on.” As Wayne talks, one manatee rolls to the side, puts a flipper over the side of the canoe, and brushes his paddle. The look on Wayne's face is priceless. “I’ve never had a manatee do that!” he says. He leans over the water. “No reaching over the gunnel,” he says to the manatee.
As we near the end of the run, we spot Camo, who is laying underneath the last observation deck. Sadly, she is without her calf, who was born on February 1st at Blue Spring. They were together until February 4th, but the next time Camo visited the park, she was alone. On February 11th, a dead calf was recovered nearby, on the north side of Lake Beresford. It is possible the dead calf is Camo’s, but it is not yet known for sure.
We take the canoe back to shore. The official count for the day: 244 manatees in the Blue Spring run. As we pull up and start taking out our gear, the interested park visitors gather to talk with Wayne and pepper him with questions:
Do the alligators bother the manatees?
How much water flows out of the spring?
What is the water temperature of the spring?
Do the manatees go in the ocean?
Where do they travel in the summer?
“What are you doing?” one man asks. We explain that Wayne is Manatee Specialist for Save the Manatee Club and is contributing to a research database on the Blue Spring manatees. He turns to Wayne. “You are lucky to have this job,” he says.
