Sea life returns to canals

When Siesta Key Association member Dave Thomas spots manatees from his canal-front home, he jumps into a kayak and trails the herd.

The creatures’ sloth-like pace allows him to keep up.

“It’s a lot of fun and it’s nice to be able to highlight their location,” he said.

Manatees’ slow-moving nature is also a great hindrance in areas with high boat traffic, such as the Grand Canal on Siesta Key. And with pods starting to return to canals after Tropical Storm Debby filled the waterways with debris and churned the sediment, Thomas is nervous about the underage captains he recently spotted making narrow canals potential death traps for the manatees.

A recent study by Mote Marine Laboratory concluded that manatees are able to hear boats bearing down on them.

The problem, the study concluded, is that the crunchy vegetation manatees gorge on makes hearing other noises difficult.

Also, the hulking gray creatures blend into the dark-green canal waters and expose only a foot-long patch on their backs and their nostrils when taking breaths. So, when a boat is traveling fast enough to make wake, it’s nearly impossible to see them, Thomas explained.

Mote Marine Laboratory Public Relation Specialist Hayley Rutger said the research organization does not consider the Grand Canal a hot spot for manatees, so there may be little correlation between the tropical storm and the subsequent lack of sightings.

Another manatee sighting that troubled Thomas was near Big Pass. He spotted a herd of roughly 10 manatees moving to a small strait near Big Pass.

The gathering may have been a mating herd, Rutger explained. During summer, female manatees will try to evade male suitors by swimming into shallow beach waters, such as those of Big Pass.

“Boaters and beachgoers should give mating herds a wide berth,” according to an informational email from Mote Marine. “Both for your own safety and for that of the manatees.”

Manatee dos and don’ts
Do:
• Watch the manatees from at least 100 feet away. Coming any closer may disrupt the animals’ natural mating behavior or put people into harm’s way. Adult manatees typically weigh upward of 1,000 pounds, and people could be seriously injured.

Don’t:
• Try to push the animals back to deeper water. Animals such as manatees or dolphins can be injured when people try to push them along the sandy shore. Given their size, manatees especially also pose a danger to people.
• Feed, water or harass manatees. Federal and state laws forbid “harassing” them — harassment includes offering them food or water.
• Litter. Please be careful with your trash, and carry out everything you carried to the beach.
* Courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory