Manatee have showed up much more frequently this summer and at beaches and areas where we've rarely seen them before. There have been so many manatee at Crashboat that DNR officials have put up signs telling people to leave them alone, to not harass them (because apparently people aren't smart enough to figure that out for themselves), and buoys marking manatee areas in the water to warn boaters and jet-skiers.
It is illegal in PR to touch the manatee but no one has a suggestion of how to deal with an "aggressively affectionate" manatee in the water. This one wanted to play and to have her belly scratched. How to you say "no" to an 800-pound friend?
Marie and I spent more than an hour playing with this manatee mostly near the surface although she was just as happy to play 20 feet down.
No comments:
Post a Comment