Manatees Close Blue Spring for Season

It's that time a year again, the Manatees have returned to Blue Spring, Orange City, and the park is closing the spring for swimming and diving until March 1st, 2009. Today is the last day for diving or swimming. We went last Tuesday and were the only divers there. My buddy and I dove to the bottom 118' and found that a slab of wall had cracked off and deposited over the cap stone. This has filled with the popcorn rock and changed the water flow direction. Instead of going straight up the water now shoots out parallel to the cave floor. Viz was a good 80 feet but had a lot of particulate in it.
So we drifted down the run towards the swimming area and encountered a lot of gar, mullet, and even a few large Tarpon! Then suddenly there they are, 10 or more manatees. Mother with calf, big bulls, and some other lazy cows. We waited until the group seperated to swim through them to the dock where we were greeted by a ranger telling us, "Don't touch the Manatees!" Of course we didn't, and by then we were out of the water anyway. So I've attached a few of the pictures I took of the cows for your enjoyment.

I used to enjoy going there. Never saw anyone bother the manatees. It is to bad after so long that they suddenly wouldn't let people in the water. Now I don't even bother going there. Used to be a nice place to stay for the whole day. Oh well.