Close Encounters of a Manatee Kind

[ChuckW]

Last week I spent April break with my boys on the boat down in SW FL. We had a great week, lots of fishing and sun seeking.

On one day we hit a small hole in the flats and anchored up for some fishing. There were 2 manatees in the grassy flats feeding. They came over to our boat to check us out. However one of them would not leave. He spent about 30 minutes playing with our all chain anchor rode. It was a rare event for sure, at least for this FL boater. Any others seen this behavior? Video and pix below.

Video

 

[Ryan]

That is awesome!

 

[chuck1]

Neat pictures and video. That is very interesting, I've heard of them playing in your AC water stream before. How deep is the water?

 

[ChuckW]

Neat pictures and video. That is very interesting, I've heard of them playing in your AC water stream before. How deep is the water?

Water was 5' deep. You can see the sandy bottom around the manatee.

 

[katricol]

Cool post... I hope you don't get arrested for illegal fishing!...JK

 

[timinfla2]

He was just flossing.

 

[ChuckW]

Cool post... I hope you don't get arrested for illegal fishing!...JK

:smt043:smt043:smt043

I was actually more worried that he was going to get tangled up in it. The pix and vid don't show it, but at one point he was trying to wrap it around himself/herself. How would I explain that one? Honest officer, he did it to himself.:huh:

 

[timinfla2]

Well I'm sure this will make me very unpopular with the PETA crowd but screw Manatees. From what I understand they are an invasive species (from Central America actually) and they are butt-ass stupid.

I actually had one travel to run in front of my little fishing boat one day - I nearly knocked my buddy overboard trying to not run over the stupid little bastard because I had to reverse so hard.

They also allow the Statists here in S FL to institute all sorts of no wake zones under the rubric of saving the manatees. Thing is, the no wake zones are only certain months of the year and at certain times of the day and certain days of the week. I.e, the Manatees understand that on Mondays-Fridays, they need to lie low but on Sat Sun they have free reign because no-wake is in effect.

Well come to think of it, I've nothing against the manatee in general so much as I have against the people that think they are smarter than nature and that they know what's best for all the animals, plants, etc of this great world.

Just to be clear, it was an awesome vid and I'd have been just as excited if it had happened on my boat - and yes, my cold black heart is also happy he didn't get himself wrapped up in the chain...

 

[ChuckW]

Well I'm sure this will make me very unpopular with the PETA crowd...

You mean People Eating Tasty Animals? :grin:

 

[timinfla2]

No, the other fruitcakes - People Eating Tofu Again.

Animals taste good!

Incidentally - my buddy told me about this hilarious story he read where a guy (jokingly) posted a request on a recipe site for about '50lbs of manatee' he had in his freezer.

Everybody got a good laugh except for the animal nazis. The raided his house and are attempting to fine him. What a bunch of douche bags.