(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

Few places offer more natural beauty and outdoor opportunities than my home town Ocala, FL, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. There was no Disney World. There were no Interstate highways. People shopped in stores downtown rather than malls.

Back roads led to a dozen crystal clear freshwater springs…my swimming pools every Summer. Major League baseball players - the ones I saw on television during the regular season - played Spring Training games…on the diamond where I played high school baseball.

We had world-class freshwater fishing for Largemouth Bass, Speckled Perch and Bream in Lochloosa and Orange Lake…great saltwater fishing for Redfish, Snook and Flounder at Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico.

There was hunting - where you could bag your limit of quail, dove, wild hogs and White-tailed deer - on public and private lands down dozens of those back roads…or in the half-million-acre Ocala National Forest.

Oranges and grapefruit grew in back yards…even as most Americans fought snow, ice and cold weather. You knew virtually everyone in town…all 11,480 of them. Most people didn’t lock their cars or homes.

The entire state’s population was half of what it is today…about 11 million people. Miami and Tampa were barely among the nation’s 50 largest cities…and I would be a teenager before visiting either place.

Among other pursuits, my high school buddies and I on occasion would drive 45 minutes to Crystal River on the Gulf of Mexico, in search of elusive manatees. Liking warm water during Winter, manatees would enter the hundreds of shallow canals dredged for boaters…so real estate developers could sell “water-front” lots. Manatees can die when water temperatures dip below 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

Manatees in Crystal River

(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

Daytime “manatee hunts” meant easier sightings, but the allure of building a fire on an empty lot overlooking a canal with a six-pack of beer made nighttime “hunting” the more popular sport for us.

There were fewer than 1,000 manatees - A.K.A. sea cows - in Florida back then, so sightings were exciting…especially after a couple beers. Today, there are nearly ten times as many manatees…an environmental victory we should both celebrate and replicate. Manatees can be found from Florida and parts of the Caribbean to the mouth of the Amazon…and on the western coast of Africa.

Manatees are marvellous creatures. Neither predator nor prey, they wile away their days in both freshwater and saltwater nibbling on sea grasses, slowly swimming in shallow waters and sleeping. Actually, manatees are lousy sleepers…even though they spend about 12 hours a day snoozing.

Manatees are mammals - no gills - and have to surface every 10 to 15 minutes to breathe…so they rest more than sleep. That’s an inconvenient truth…imagine getting up 30 times a night to pee…not a good night’s sleep.

Sea cows - like their land-based namesakes - spend about eight hours a day looking for food…grazing on favourite sea grasses and algae under water and pulling themselves partially out of the water along the shoreline to nibble tasty leaves from overhanging Mangrove trees.

Only on rare occasions do these aquatic vegans slip up and eat a small fish.

Their teeth are well back in their mouths and are vertical rather than horizontal like most mammals. Their bodies are chock full of organs…with lungs that run almost the length of their bodies…and nearly 150 feet of intestines.

Sea cows differ from their land-based cousins…land cows digest more on the front end of their gastrointestinal tracts…while sea cows - like horses - digest on the back end of their digestive tracts.

Actually, a manatee’s closet relative…another land mammal…the elephant. Manatees - like pachyderms - have thick skin, three to four toenails. Also, the manatee snout…and their prehensile lips handle food similar to an elephant’s trunk.

The remainder of a typical manatee’s day - about four hours - is for play. At a top speed of about 5 M.P.H. they chase air bubbles, each other or cautiously approach piers and stationery boats. These creatures are not built for speed…looking more or less like a 1,000-pound baked potato under water.

Manatees have no neck and fewer vertebrae than say a porpoise…so even looking peripherally is a relatively slow process…more like turning an aircraft carrier than a fast-maneuvering patrol boat.

They have two small flippers with nails to grab hold of food…and a tail to help them navigate. Their primary means of locomotion, however, is passing gas. That’s right, manatees are prolific farters... with sacs along their intestines - and unlike most mammals - a capacity to precisely control the passing of gas.

If you notice manatees bobbing in shallow water - surface to bottom and back again - you’ll see bubbles coming from the mammals’ rears. They are the animal kingdom’s submarine…using the gas from digesting aquatic plants to help them surface and dive.

Manatees hold their gas when they want to float to the surface…and release the gas to decrease buoyancy and sink deeper. You can even hear a distinct “phhtt” sound on occasion when a manatee decides to “dive, dive, dive!” Fortunately, the manatee fart is neither silent nor deadly.

My late brother-in-law, Ron, and I were overboard on Florida’s East coast brushing the waterline of his boat - he on port and I starboard - when I heard him holler, “Knock it off!” He thought I’d swam underneath the boat and was nudging him from behind. Instead, it was a playful manatee.

Today, you can go to Crystal River and swim with manatees. That same canal where my friends and I hoped to glimpse a single manatee in 1967…typically has scores of manatees…day and night.

The population explosion in manatees didn’t happen by accident or because sea cows are more amorous today than back in the day. Boats cannot operate beyond idle speed in the Crystal River Basin and boaters have been sensitized to be careful. Volunteers clean coastlines of litter, old fishing line and debris that might hinder manatee viability.

Elsewhere in Florida - where there are no imposed low-speed limits for boats - manatees are hit by boats and motors…killing untold numbers every year. Sadly, even in Crystal River a vocal anti-government minority insists the rules don’t apply to them…and often speed through protected areas.

Manatee protected areas are well marked on Florida’s East and West coasts, and boaters are encouraged to wear polarized sunglasses to better see and steer clear of them. And while you can “swim with manatees” sort of…you can’t touch them…you must float on the surface and view them with mask and snorkel…never diving or chasing them.

And while some people spray manatees with water from hoses…that’s a no-no. It is illegal, in fact, to not only touch them…but you can’t water, feed or bother manatees in any way…and the fines are steep. Manatees are sweet creatures, and human contact, according to experts, conditions them to trust and accept humans…which puts them at greater risk.

Seeing manatees in the wild should be on your bucket list. Meanwhile, we should celebrate that in a world where we have more-often-than-not spoiled our environment, somehow we’re getting manatee preservation right.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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