Re: Crystal River, Florida

The definitive word -- I live 5 miles from Crystal River and have
helped lead manatee tours in the past for several shops.

No shop takes Scuba Divers out on manatee tours. This strictly a
snorkel experience.

First and foremost - the manatees don't seem tolike the noise and air
bubbles produced by SCUBA. This willnot only deminish your encounter
but everyone else's as well. The manatees will simply swim away and be
gone.

Next, most of the encounter takes place in an area known as Three
Sisters Spring. This area is 3-4 feet deep in most parts (though the
three main sprinmg openings are in sand bowls dropping to about 15
feet. At these depths SCUBA is not needed.

If you want to Scuba dive, you can go back out in the afternoon.
However I do not recommend diving in Kings Bay. The visibility is awful
(often less than 2 feet) at the main spring and there isn't much to see
even when you can see. Instead I suggest you ask about a trip to nearby
Rainbow River. This is a drift dive down a spring fed river that is
truly beautiful.

Other options are Devil's Den and the Blue Grotto in Williston (about
1.5 hours north of Brooksville on US41).

As for tour operators - I first and formost suggest Birds Underwater.
They are the class act of the tours. http://www.birdsunderwater.com or
352/563-2753. They are not the cheapest (cost is about $35 per person
plus any rental gear you need) but this is a case of you get what
youpay for. They go out early (be at the shop by 6:15am) but stay until
customers are ready to return. Boats are enclosed and light
refreshments are aboard. The boats also have a head (toilet) if needed.

Who to avoid at all costs - American Pro Dive. They are greedy, could
not care less about customer satisfaction and have been documented on
numerous occasions harrassing and abusing manatees. The local US Fish
and Wildlife office knows about it but is powerless to do anything.
Why? They do not have any law enforcement officers. The last one was
transfered out last year by it's Atlanta office and there is no funding
to place another officer here. The USFW folks here are not law
enforcement officers, they are strictly maintenance and administrative.

The offshore diving here is pretty blah and the nearest operators are
in Clearwater. Gulf diving in this area involves a one hour drive to
Clearwater, then a 2-3 hour boat ride to get to a 3-foot ledge. What I
suggest is spend the same amount of time in your car, drive to Jupiter
on the Atlantic coast and goout there. It is a 30-minute boat ride
(most time spent indoling down the intercoastal) for a 70-foot drop on
some very nice coral reefs.

Enjoy your stay

(while in Brooksville, have breakfast at Farmer John's on SR50A. It's
cash only but very good - split an Apple Pancake - delicious and will
feed 2-3.)




On 2008-03-14 15:58:00 -0400, Jay Furr <jfurr@furrs.org> said:

> My wife and I are NAUI-certified divers and DAN members and we're
> going to be in Brooksville, Florida next week for my folks' 50th
> wedding anniversary. We live in Vermont so the diving here's not much
> compared to what you can get in Florida, of course, and therefore
> obviously we're going to want to get in a dive or two next week.
>
> We've heard that you can dive, as opposed to snorkel, with the
> manatees at Crystal River, but then other folks have said "no, they
> don't let you do that, they're protected" and then others have said
> "well, WE did". There are any number of shops online which claim to do
> scuba diving manatee tours, and we'd like to avoid calling up any that
> are really fly-by-night or would do anything that pushes the
> boundaries on what you can/should do around manatees.
>
> Can anyone share their experience with Crystal River and manatees and
> diving? Should we stick to snorkeling? Is it worth it to lug our gear
> down there if we're not going to be able to take the time to go out in
> the Gulf proper? And, finally, can you recommend a dive shop or two
> that you consider reputable and trustworthy?
>
> Thanks very much in advance!

Ron Thompson wrote

> The definitive word -- I live 5 miles from Crystal River and have helped
> lead manatee tours in the past for several shops.

Funny how often "The definitive word" turns out not to be.

> No shop takes Scuba Divers out on manatee tours. This strictly a snorkel
> experience.

Odd, I could have sworn I was using scuba equipment. Guess it was just a
different kind of snorkel.

> First and foremost - the manatees don't seem tolike the noise and air
> bubbles produced by SCUBA. This willnot only deminish your encounter but
> everyone else's as well. The manatees will simply swim away and be gone.

Experiences differ. Some seem to shy away from scuba divers, some seem
attracted to them. One of our most enjoyable encounters involved a mother
and baby manatee that thought the scuba divers that scratched their backs
and tummies were pretty cool, bubbles or not.

> Next, most of the encounter takes place in an area known as Three Sisters
> Spring. This area is 3-4 feet deep in most parts (though the three main
> sprinmg openings are in sand bowls dropping to about 15 feet. At these
> depths SCUBA is not needed.

Nothing difinititive about this at all. Perhaps most encounters the writer
experienced were at Three Sisters. Most of my encounters, by far, were
elsewhere.

> If you want to Scuba dive, you can go back out in the afternoon. However I
> do not recommend diving in Kings Bay. The visibility is awful (often less
> than 2 feet) at the main spring and there isn't much to see even when you
> can see.

The water flowing from the springs is crystal clear. Visibility is only low
when stirred up by too many divers which, admitedly, happens often.
Visibility in other parts of Kings Bay varies from fair to poor, but you
don't need to be able to see hundreds of feet to interact with manatees.

> Instead I suggest you ask about a trip to nearby Rainbow River. This is a
> drift dive down a spring fed river that is truly beautiful.

I recommend, and have previously recommended, you do both. The drift down
Rainbow River is spectacular, either with a snorkel or a tank. For me,
neither the manatee encounters nor the drift down the river are enough to
draw me back to the area often. The combination, however, makes the
occasional trip worthwhile.

> Other options are Devil's Den and the Blue Grotto in Williston (about 1.5
> hours north of Brooksville on US41).

Added attractions that are, in fact, worth the short drive.

> As for tour operators - I first and formost suggest Birds Underwater. They
> are the class act of the tours. http://www.birdsunderwater.com or
> 352/563-2753. They are not the cheapest (cost is about $35 per person
> plus any rental gear you need) but this is a case of you get what youpay
> for. They go out early (be at the shop by 6:15am) but stay until customers
> are ready to return. Boats are enclosed and light refreshments are aboard.
> The boats also have a head (toilet) if needed.

Personally, I rent a jon boat from the operator behind the Best Western,
making it possible to snorkel with the manatees around Three Sisters as well
as in the areas where visibility is normally lower, but I've been able to
find friendly manatees more often. We almost always include a dive at the
spring. It's been years since I've used an operator. Far more often, I've
been the operator for out of area groups that join us for manatee dives.
Birds has a good reputation. I don't have personal experience with them, one
way or the other.

> Who to avoid at all costs - American Pro Dive. They are greedy, could not
> care less about customer satisfaction and have been documented on numerous
> occasions harrassing and abusing manatees. The local US Fish and Wildlife
> office knows about it but is powerless to do anything. Why? They do not
> have any law enforcement officers. The last one was transfered out last
> year by it's Atlanta office and there is no funding to place another
> officer here. The USFW folks here are not law enforcement officers, they
> are strictly maintenance and administrative.

Yeah, right. No Florida officers anywhere in the area either, right?

> (while in Brooksville, have breakfast at Farmer John's on SR50A. It's cash
> only but very good - split an Apple Pancake - delicious and will feed
> 2-3.)

Or drive down to Punta Gorda for potatoes and sausage gravy at the Smoke
House.

Lee

On 2008-03-20 05:58:11 -0400, "Lee Bell" <pleebell@bellsouth.net> said:

> Ron Thompson wrote
>
>
>> No shop takes Scuba Divers out on manatee tours. This strictly a snorkel
>> experience.
>
> Odd, I could have sworn I was using scuba equipment. Guess it was just a
> different kind of snorkel.


I said no Shop.. you say later in your reply that you have not gone out
with a tour operator for years. What you do from one of Jerry Hogans
jonboats is up to you.

> Some seem to shy away from scuba divers, some seem
> attracted to them.

Always an exception but very rare. Once again unless you go on your
own, no tour operator allows scuba during a manatee excursion. The
other exception is if you are on an afternoon scuba trip to the main
spring and a manatee happens to be there and is interested. But that is
NOT a manatee tour.



> Perhaps most encounters the writer
> experienced were at Three Sisters. Most of my encounters, by far, were
> elsewhere.

Of course they are found throughout the bay and the good tours will
search until they are found. However the greatest numbers of encounters
now take place at Three Sisters, seconded by Jurassic and then the Main
Spring.


>
> The water flowing from the springs is crystal clear. Visibility is only low
> when stirred up by too many divers

It is clear until about 3/4's of the way out of the cavern. the spring
is very low flow now as another vent shut down. That leaves one partial
open vent still flowing. Cracks have opened in the walls and it is only
a matter of time before the opening collapses. Visibility outside the
cavern is minimal to the poiint that even finding one of the opewnings
can be a challenge. This is not from kicked up silt by divers but
rather from algae and tidal flow stirring up sediment


> . The USFW folks here are not law enforcement officers, they
>> are strictly maintenance and administrative.
>
> Yeah, right. No Florida officers anywhere in the area either, right?


None.. They state officers patrol the river but seldom come into the
bay. Even then they are looking for boating violations. They do not
have authority over the santuaries in any case. Most will ask you to
leave it if they see you you in one though. In the last ten years only
one ticket has been written for Manatee Harrassment (against a captain
from American Pro Dive), but the charges were dropped.

There is no law enforcementof Manatee regulations on the bay, despite
numerous tour operators and protection groups asking for it. The only
group doing anything are volunteers in Kayaks who have no authority.


BTW Lee - if you are leading tours on the bay at times, I hope you have
a USCG captains license, a USFW special permit and a USCG inspected
vessel. If Not the one group that does patrol the water is the USCG
from Yankeetown and they routinely stop tour craft. They don't care
about manatees but do enforce the federal laws.