Swimming with Manatees at Crystal River

When I got to Florida (I worked there for a year), I asked for recommendations on some things to do. Whether it was kayaking, going to the beach, visiting a state park; I would frequently hear “You might be able to see a Manatee!” Being from California, I hadn’t heard much about Manatees, so naturally I googled them, and gosh are they adorable sea potatoes.

Of course, with google tracking my search history and my computer location GPS tracker (that I keep forgetting to turn off), I soon got a barrage of recommendations/ads on my Instagram and Facebook to go swimming with the Manatees.  

Manatees like warm waters, so during the winter months they migrate to the warm waters of Florida. The best time to go is between the months of November to April. We called some tour companies, and they all recommended going December-February.  There are some manatees that are in the bay year-round, you can easily identify them as the ones with algae all over them.

We ended up doing a manatee encounter with fun2dive (Not sponsored, genuinely liked them) at Crystal River in January. We signed up for a semi-private manatee swim, mostly because we didn’t feel like mingling with strangers and it was only 10$ more (Total Cost: $69.95 per person, not including taxes and fees), but that ended up being a great idea. With our own boat, we were able to choose where to go swimming with the Manatees. None of us were from Florida so we asked the guide and the boat operator for their recommendation. They took us to a spot (Kings Bay) where there were over 30 manatees that morning. The other group went to a different spot and it turns out there were only a few manatees at the other spot.

The experience was a blast! Before the start of our tour we had to watch a safety video and things we could not do to the manatees. You aren’t supposed to pursue, harass, and other common sense things to the manatees. But, if one approached you, you can pet them with one hand palm side down. There was a straight up manatee mosh pit going on when we went. There were a lot of young calves that were more curious (one straight up climbed on me), and a few of them would roll over and I was told by our guide that the manatees liked when we pet their stomach. Definitely an experience worth doing, but next time I want to go diving with them now that I have my scuba license.