But back to Tampa.

While there, we heard about the weird Florida weather and how it’s affecting the local manatees. These 1000lb ‘sea cows’ need shallow water that’s about 75-80 degrees F, and the Gulf right now is 58. So, what are the manatees doing? No, they can’t just go to Florida for the winter! The local coal-fired power plant has a 78 degree outfall into a nearby river and mangrove forest, and the manatees have all gone there to hang out. We counted about 150 of them, but locals said upwards of 300 have been spotted at once. The power plant has built a pretty good viewing platform that gets you to within about 20 feet of some of these soft giants, so you really get to study them. Also enjoying the warmth was a six foot shark and a bunch of rays ‘flying’ around between the bigger beasts. It was quite a show.

Manatees are very interesting critters. They normally spend upwards of half a day sleeping on the shallow bottoms of bays and rivers, only breathing once every 10-20 minutes. They don’t exhale to descend, but compress stored air, and in this way can stay down very long periods of time. They can eat upwards of 100 lbs of ‘greens’ a day. Manatees are not doing very well because of invasive species that are choking their out their watery homes – as well as being hit by boat propellers, so this was a real treat to see.