Manatees draw thousands of fans at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City

BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN
Photogenic — A visitor takes photos of manatees at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City Dec. 29. The cold weather brought manatees into the warmer water refuge, and that brought many visitors eager to see the animals.

BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN
The road is long — and so is the wait to enter Blue Spring State Park. The park's waters are full of manatees, bringing throngs of visitors who want to see them.

BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN
Family affair — A family of manatees stick close together as they move through the waters at Blue Spring run, where water temperatures are warmer than in the St. Johns River.

BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN
Coming up for air — A manatee rises to the surface for a snoutful of fresh air. Manatees are air-breathing mammals. They like the warm waters — a constant 72 degrees — of Blue Spring during cold winter weather.

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Dec 30, 2009 - 10:50:25am

Cold weather is here. That means crowds of manatees in to bask in the warmer water bubbling up at Blue Spring State Park, and crowds of visitors to watch them.

On Dec. 28, 220 manatees swam in the park’s waters. By around 11 a.m. Dec. 29, rangers counted 207 manatees.

It’s the busiest time of year at the park, on the edge of the St. Johns River, just off the end of West French Avenue in Orange City.

A first-magnitude spring – producing more than 100,000 gallons of water a day — gushes up in the park, and flows to the St. Johns River in a run that’s popular with human swimmers in the summer, and with manatees in the winter.

When it’s cold, the 72-degree water in the run is warmer than the water in the open river. The river water was measured at 61 degrees on Dec. 22, the week before the Dec. 29 cold front came through. Manatees, which are mammals, fare better in warmer water.

Park Manager Bob Rundle noted there’s often a lag of one or two days between the drop in temperatures and manatees reaching Blue Spring. He expected the number of manatee visitors, which began to jump the day after Christmas, to increase by New Year’s Day.

Manatees, often with calves in tow, delight tourists and regular visitors who come to watch them glide through the water, breaking the surface regularly with their snouts to breathe.

Rundle and manatee specialist Ranger Wayne Hartley, who has been tracking and studying the gentle giants for 30 years, know many of the Blue Spring manatees by name.

On Dec. 28, park staff tracked 3,589 people passing through the front gate, many of them hoping to see the manatees for themselves.

“We encourage people to car pool,” Rundle said.

While rangers and volunteers try to accommodate as many visitors as possible, when the park’s 250 parking spaces are full, they can let one vehicle enter only as one vehicle leaves.

Rundle suggests getting to the park by 10 a.m. It opens at 8 a.m.

“We try to get as many people in as we can,” he said. “Just understand, if we’re turning people around at the gate, we’re trying not to bother our neighbors on French Avenue. We try to be good neighbors.”

Long lines of cars can be a nuisance to residents along the avenue.

An alternative to arriving at Blue Spring first thing in the morning is to come after 4 p.m. to see the manatees, Rundle said. The park is open until sundown, which is around 5:30 p.m. this time of year.

While the spring and the run are closed to swimming and boating in the winter, when the manatees are in residence, picnicking, hiking, camping and boat rides are popular activities.

For more information about Blue Spring State Park, call 386-775-3663, or visit the park online.

Click here to see video of the manatees.

— pat@beacononlinenewscom

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