How's the Devil System?

[FW]

When I came up out of the eye, I was delighted to be eye to eye with one of the Manatees. I followed it almost to Little Devils where it turned and swam back toward the river. About 10 min. later, I asked a kayaker, who had paddled up to Little Devils, if he had seen the manatees. He laughed and assured me that manatees "never come this far upstream".

Nevermind that is awfully early for Manatee to come up river anyway??

[Diverlee]

Mike BE CAREFUL!!! Although they may have the same dimentions as Manatees, it might have been a drunken female tuber! In the tannic water, it's hard to tell...

I was a witness, they were real Manatees. I had just said the night before I wanted to do a manatee dive, then boom, there they are for over an hour. Most enjoyable dive I have had in a long time.

[Sludge]

Last September I was solo diving at the St. Andrews jetties in Panama City Beach and I came eye-to-eye with a lone manatee. I never expected to see one there, either.

[sskasser]

Dove Devil's today but the highlight was hanging out on the breather in the run between Ear & Eye with 3 manatees <G>. Awesome, they were rolling over on their side letting me scratch their bellies....very cool!

I AM SO JEALOUS <---yep, that's me yelling! I've wanted to get around some manatees in the water ever since I moved to Florida...just never has happened. Thanks for sharing Mike! I really am glad you got enjoy them.

[Line Squirrel]

The ony manatee I ever saw was at Wakulla last year, I was standing on one of the docks so I wasn't in the water with it.

This was a first and pretty darn cool.

[EGIB]

Dove Devil's today but the highlight was hanging out on the breather in the run between Ear & Eye with 3 manatees <G>. Awesome, they were rolling over on their side letting me scratch their bellies....very cool!

WOW! I am totally jealous...I knew I shouldn't have worked yesterday! Although I'd be worried that my exhaust bubbles and the sound of the dpvs would scare them...of course Mike doesn't have to worry about either of those things...

[scubabrownie]

Thanks for the comments on completing Cave DPV. It was nice to meet you. I am now looking to do more cave scootering...

Brian

[BabyDuck]

that sounds fantastic, mike!

see you thurs...

[tomhauburn]

WOW! I am totally jealous...I knew I shouldn't have worked yesterday! Although I'd be worried that my exhaust bubbles and the sound of the dpvs would scare them...of course Mike doesn't have to worry about either of those things...

No bubbles is nice but I had an hour or so with some at Blue Springs before they closed it to diving when they are in the run. We did not go to them, they came to us and were very interested. While staying still on the bottom they would swim up face to face and check us out. I even had one tug on my fins along with having them try to roll me over with their flippers. Amazing experience. Of course it was before I got a housing for my camera but a friend got a lot of shots on his that day.

[inkdiver]

Sorry for the hijack, but I was lucky enough to get some photos this past winter.





There are lots more in my galleryhttp://inkmantpa.smugmug.com/gallery...27911150_dHa8C