The Daily - 'Animal,' Episode 3: Manatees

Episode Date: June 16, 2024

In a broken world, what can we gain by looking another animal in the eye? "Animal" is a six-part, round-the-world journey in search of an answer. In Episode 3, the writer Sam Anderson travels to Florida to fulfill a lifelong dream: to swim with manatees.For photos and videos of Sam's adventure with manatees, visit nytimes.com/animal.

Hey, it's Michael. Today we have something really special for you, a blissful break from the news. It's a new series from NYT Audio called Animal. My colleague Sam Anderson from the Times Magazine traveled the world to have encounters with animals, not to claim them or to tame them, but just to appreciate them. Not to claim them or to tame them, but just to appreciate them. Each episode is a journey to get closer to a creature that Sam loves. For the next six weeks, we'll be running this limited series every Sunday here on The Daily Feed. But if you want to hear all the episodes right now, you can search for it wherever you get your podcasts.

Today, episode three. Hope you enjoy it. From the New York Times, this is Animal. I'm Sam Anderson. Episode three, Manatees So we picked a great day. What are the rules on that? Yeah, the rain's not an issue. It's the lightning. And I got an app on my phone here. Yeah, we definitely have some lightning. But it's their call, obviously.

But I'm not comfortable going out if there's a lot of lightning. You don't want to be on the water during the lightning. So you all booked a private tour yeah okay um yeah i think kelsey's going to join us he just texted me for some reason i do not fully understand i've always wanted to get in the water with a manatee with a manatee. A manatee is a big, pudgy, blubby-looking,

I don't know, cross between a walrus and a potato. Sometimes people call them sea cows because they basically just float around grazing. But they're a lot weirder looking than cows. They have these funny little flippers, sort of boomerang-shaped flippers up front that they use to navigate around,

and then this big, flat paddle of a tail, like a super beaver or something. They eat wet vegetables, seagrass mainly, almost never aggressive. They kind of float outside all of these cycles of predators and prey and doing stuff. They just float there. And I sort of want to float outside all of those cycles and just not worry about deadlines and meetings and whatever. It's stressful out there, but not under the water.

Looks like they're sending people out. Yeah, they'll be watching the weather. Okay. So when I think about getting in the water with a manatee, I don't know exactly what I want to happen. But when I really try to imagine it, I think what I want is for a manatee to look at me. I want to see a manatee seeing me.

I want to look at a manatee, and I want the manatee to look back at me and I just want to have a moment of connection or whatever it is. Now manatees are a

protected species and the only place I know of in the United States where you can legally swim with manatees is a place in Florida called Crystal River. I'd heard about that place from watching the classic manatee documentary made by Jacques Cousteau back in the 1970s.

And Jacques Cousteau and his whole crew of French oceanographers with their little red beanies they have a local guide and it's a kid a teenager named Buddy Powell this is you in your in your element yeah this is my element and Buddy Powell is actually still there. In the decades since he's become maybe the preeminent manatee scientist in the world. And he's the director of a big marine center not far from Crystal River. And he occasionally will still take people around Crystal River where he grew up as he did for Jacques Cousteau. What is this? This is liability, assumption of risk. So we arranged a private boat tour with Buddy Powell, me and my colleague Caitlin Roberts, who is there with the microphone.

Buddy's PR person Kelsey is going to join us, too. She's running a little late. Okay, not here yet. No, she's close, though. All right, guys, well, we're going to join us too. She's running a little late. Okay, not here yet. No, she's close though. Alright guys, well we're going to go ahead and get started. So Caitlin and I had actually been in Florida for about a week before this swimming day.

Crisscrossing the state, talking to various manatee experts, kind of getting ready for that moment when I get in the water and have an encounter everyone here is for 10 15 correct and once you start as soon as you start learning about manatees things get pretty heavy because from a distance manatees make me very happy and i find them very soothing manatees i don't, experience life that way, which we found out very quickly.

We talked to a guy who works with the Save the Manatee Club, and he paddles around in his canoe, and he recognizes all the manatees by their scars, by the damage that they've taken. So, manatees are huge animals. They float slowly and often right near the surface and so when a speedboat comes ripping through often it will it will hit a manatee and getting hit by a speedboat is basically like getting hit by a truck that has swords all over it. So he's seen manatees sliced up so badly they don't have tails. Or hit so hard by a boat that their ribs are sticking out. Just the worst of the worst. He also told us some really freaky stories about alligators that I'm not going to get into right now.

You'll need to get wetsuits and snorkeling gear here. Okay. So just rent it. And then you'll need to watch a video. Okay. Manatee Manor. Manatee Manor. Okay.

Okay, where else do we go? We went to this pathology lab in Tampa where they actually do autopsies on every manatee that turns up dead in Florida to figure out the reasons why and they've been seeing a huge increase in the number of manatees that are coming in sometimes it's just days on end you know eight nine of manatees that are coming in. Sometimes it's just days on end, you know, eight, nine, ten manatees, and when they open up the door the next day, it's just that many manatees again,

and it's just kind of nonstop. The boat strikes. There's something called red tide, which is a kind of algae that blooms in the water under certain conditions, and it makes manatees drown. And then lately they've been seeing something really horrible, which is a kind of new front in this crisis, which is starvation.

Finding manatees with sand in their stomachs because they're just desperately rooting around, trying to find any bits that they can eat, they're just desperately rooting around trying to find any bits that they can eat because the water quality has become so bad that these huge seagrass meadows where manatees have been feeding for hundreds and thousands of years are dying off and so they go there to eat and it's just fields of sand should we get out on the boat you gotta watch the the um oh we have to watch manatee manners yeah welcome to the crystal river national wildlife refuge and the king's bay manatee refuge you are among i kept asking these experts like how do you deal with this emotionally? Is it hard? Do you cry?

And the following activities or the attempt to perform any of the following activities is prohibited throughout Kings Bay. Chasing or pursuing a manatee. A lot of them were able to have a kind of scientific detachment. They're just really trying to diagnose what's wrong and help as best they can. But I remember one guy I spoke with, he surprised me a little bit. I said, you know, do you have hope for the future of manatees?

And he said, deep in my heart, no. manatees poking frotting or stabbing a manatee with anything including your hands and feet and he said deep in my heart no standing or stepping on a manatee but he said he's still he deep in his heart no but he still hopes he also said if we can't save manatees we we can't save anything. Because manatees are so resilient. They have really tough skin that's hard to cut. They have very fast coagulation in their blood, so their wounds heal very quickly, which is how they're able to survive so many of these boat strikes. And so if we can't find a way to keep manatees alive, then we're not going to be able to save anything.

Let's do it. I'm ready. Bye. Thank you. Oh, who's got? I know. To be honest, that kind of makes me hate us for wanting to swim with manatees. Well, the people that don't follow the regulations. Yeah, but even us in our stupid wetsuits floating around in the crowds of people staring at the manatees. Just, like, shut the whole thing down.

Well, hopefully people, you know, will feel a sense of awe and want to protect them, right? Yeah. I guess that's like the risk-benefit ratio you have to weigh. Yeah. Like how much does this increase people's awareness and affection and therefore lead to protection and all that how much does it bother the manatees and mess up the environment yeah exactly that's why there has to be i mean also a lot of regulation on the tour guides too so after we signed all of our forms

and squeezed into our wetsuits and watched this video. We stepped outside and the sky had cleared miraculously and we got ready to step on this boat where Buddy was going to drive us around and hopefully make my stupid manatee dream come true. Why don't we go over to the boat and then we can get after you. So you can go back and do the signal calls. Oh, yeah. Have you done one of these before, sir?

I have. Okay, so you understand that stream of water that needs to come out of the side of that motor at all times. So, Buddy Powell, the local guide... If you're ready to go, I'll get you on hook. All right, thanks a lot. Gets us in our boat, and we tootle off into the water this is where you grew up this is where i grew up uh i i was actually born in clearwater but my family had a like a little fishing cottage up here and i wanted to know all about his jacuzzo experience and uh what that was like.

Were you aware of Jacques Cousteau at this point in your life? Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, back in the day when we only had three channels, right? You know, you would sort of wait. You know, whether they come out like four times a year or twice a year, it was like a big deal to watch that show. So obviously, you know, very much a role model. To be a kid who loved nothing more than being in a boat,

who had memorized all the creatures that lived in this habitat that he grew up in, to get a call from Jacques Cousteau in the 1970s, when that name was as big as a name could be, especially for a kid like that. And so they kind of adopted me and took me under their wing. You must have felt like a little rock star. It was pretty incredible, that's for sure. Did you wear the little red hat? I did.

Really? I did indeed. Did you ever try smoking a pipe? I never tried smoking a pipe, no. Did you drink some wonderful French wine? I never tried smoking a pipe, no. Did you drink some wonderful French wine? I have definitely at that age. They were trying to cultivate my inner Frenchness, and yes, I drank my fair share of wine,

and it was a wonderful experience because it's just absolutely fabulous. And, of course, that just changed my entire life so I'm going to be keeping an eye out you know as we're going along for manatees but I wanted to tell you

a little bit of about what we're seeing here so this whole crystal river and so yeah he's steering us all over his childhood territory and he's of course able to say you know this used to be like this and this used to be like that and now there's a giant mansion here and now he said the water used to be i mean it's called crystal river because the water used to be, I mean, it's called Crystal River because the water used to be crystal clear. And now it's pretty murky in most of it.

The water quality has really plummeted. And you used to see none of the boat traffic that we were seeing that day. You would not see groups of tourists out there looking for manatees. It was just Buddy and the manatees all alone back in those days. What are these little heads that I keep seeing popping out of the water? Those are turtles. You know, I keep seeing things in the water. I see like a little something pop up from the water, and I'm like, manatee!

But he's like, nope, that's a turtle. And something would jump out of the water and just be a fish. But then at one point he did say, there it is. Our 11 o'clock. So you can see the series of them. And one in front of the other. So it's just slowly swimming along. That's right.

And we saw this manatee off to the left of the boat. So we don't want to disturb it because it's there. It's coming up to the surface. See the back? There's the back of it. So that's a nice adult manatee. The tail, we saw the whole of it. See its back come up and then its tail,

and it would leave these what Buddy called tail prints on the water. That's so you could sort of follow where it was going. what Buddy called tail prints on the water. That's so you could sort of follow where it was going. And it was really thrilling to see one so far from shore just doing its natural thing. Does it still feel special for you to see a manatee? Oh, yeah. It's hard to explain it,

but every time I see a manatee, I still get excited about it. And I can watch them brood. So we're cruising around. He's taking us down little side coves. And as we're cruising around, we keep seeing... These guys are probably with one. Those guys over there are probably with one these other tourist boats and crowds of people in the water and that was the fastest way to find a manatee

it's kind of like when you're a yellowstone the fastest way to find a bear is to find the the traffic jam of people looking at the bear on the side of the road. Here, there were traffic jams of boats and crowds of tourists who were floating with pool noodles and, you know, flippers and goggles, and they're all just kind of hanging around a manatee while it's eating. I don't know. I feel almost inclined not to get in the water with a big crowd of people staring at one manatee. Yeah, I feel almost inclined not to get in the water with a big crowd of people staring at one manatee. Yeah, I can understand. So we're kind of keeping our distance, because once I see that, it's not what I imagined for my manatee encounter.

Somehow it does not feel to me like outside of the predator-prey hustle and bust-bustle chain, the side of... Oh, there's one right there. Whoa. There's two propellants on it. Wow. Can you tell what size that one was? It's a small adult. He's hanging out at the bottom?

He's feeding. Can you describe what the scene looks like? Well, we got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight plus boats out here full of people in wetsuits. And then we've got groups of people in wetsuits with pool noodles and snorkels sticking up who are in the water kind of face down all in a in a tight cluster we assume staring at one manatee we've got boats with docked outside of houses, boats with huge huge powerful looking motors.

This boat has two giant motors on the back, two big Honda motors. And as you can see, he doesn't realize that there's a manatee. As you can see, you can see the bottom, it's not really that shallow. So he could be doing some damage. Well, he's going slowly enough that that manatee will, you know, will move out of the way. But if he wasn't going slowly, yes, absolutely. And not only that, it's just a matter of disturbance too. These, you know, these animals, they become somewhat habituated, but generally they just you know they want to be left alone to you know defeat so we basically did this all day we see a manatee it would be surrounded by a crowd and i would say

let's try another one and finally the day was over i was sunburned we had to take the boat back and we went into this little lagoon and there was a manatee and there was a crowd of people around it i don't know kelsey how do you feel do you want to jump in i mean i'm hot so i thought about it and decided. I guess we should probably just do it. We could do it here. Yeah. Since we know we're here. Came all this way. I don't want to miss my opportunity and regret it later. So I guess I'll just be one of the crowd and get in there.

What do you think? Let's try it. These guys are kind of harassing him a little bit. And sometimes Buddy would point out, like, oh, they're kind of harassing that manatee. You're really not supposed to be that close, or you're not supposed to be swimming after it. You just stay still and let it do what it wants,

and you don't follow it, and you don't interact. You just look. He told me to just float like a log when i get in there try to stay at least a manatee or two lengths away from it okay what if it approaches then you just stay still and let it do its thing. And like I said, just pretend to be another object in the water. Okay. All right.

So, Sam, I'm probably going to stay up here. Maybe you can kind of tell me what you're doing as you're doing it, as you're getting in the water. All right. Well, I'm going to put this snorkel on. And I'm going to take my shoes off. Okay, so there's two right here just feeding. And so what you don't want to do is disturb them in any way. And just be as quiet as you possibly can.

Keep an eye on me. Because obviously one of the reasons I don't get in the water is I can spot and see further away. And so I'll sort of give you directions. I don't like to yell out over the water. But just occasionally just lift your head up and take a look at me keep an eye out for alligators i'll tell you if one comes your son came out for us appreciate that yeah So I, you know, I was in my wetsuit already. still over there so i you know i was i was in my wetsuit already i put on my flippers and my goggles and my snorkel and got in the water so 72 degrees doesn't feel that warm kind of chilly water so i get in and the water is is very murky there's a lot 11 o'clock straight ahead 12 o'clock

11 o'clock there's there's a lot of plants a lot of seagrass and so it's just like murk and seagrass and i can't really see where i'm going but i know the general direction the manatee is in. And Buddy is kind of shouting out, you know, it's at 11 o'clock and he's guiding me across the water. So I'm kind of just swimming with a face full of murky seagrass and I can't see where I'm going and I'm not sure if I'm going anywhere. And then all of a sudden sudden it was such a shock all of a sudden i come shooting out of the murk and i'm just i'm like on top of the manatee practically i did not see it coming by the time i saw it i was there and it's it's eating facing away from me. And so I come to a stop basically right next to its gigantic tail, which I know from my manatee research is so strong and potentially dangerous.

And so I was instantly kind of panicked. But I also knew that rule number one of being near a manatee is that you can't panic and thrash around because you'll scare the manatee and then it will potentially thrash. And so I had to sort of work as hard as I could to stop my momentum as quickly work as hard as I could to stop my momentum. As quickly but as gently as I could until my momentum stopped just like inches from the manatee tail. And I was able to kind of scooch backwards very slowly until I was a few feet away.

Sam is about a manatee away from the manatee. One manatee length away. and then I just watched I just stared because this thing was so otherworldly almost like ghostly pale kind of gray color almost like glowing in the light and it's just peacefully eating grass and all these other people around me but we're not noticing each other at all because we're all just so in awe

of this manatee really and i don't know how long i floated there, but for a pretty long time. And then I decided, all right, I saw a manatee. Didn't turn around and look at me, which, I mean, why would it? But that was okay. But that was okay. So very gently I turned and I swam through the murk back to the boat. And just as I was starting to tell everybody what I had seen, one of the little crowd watching the manatee eat shouted,

It's turning! it's coming your way and the manatee had turned around and was swimming directly toward our boat oh my gosh And so I just gently let go of the ladder and dropped back under the water to see what it was going to do. And the manatee came right over to me and started grazing the seagrass right next to our boat, kind of down below my flippers. And so I just floated there, suspended, watching it.

and then after a few seconds the most magical thing happened which is the manatee stopped eating and it tilted its body up vertical and it floated up toward the surface, and it paused, and it looked at me. Like it really looked me in the eyes, and I was looking at the manatee, and the manatee was looking at me, and I always fantasized about this moment and all the many feelings that would pass between us, and we would just kind of beam warm feelings back and forth to each other. I felt, in the manatee's gaze, I felt nothing. There was no magical soul connection. And that was good and normal. And the fantasy I had was abnormal.

And I should probably talk to my therapist, Susan, about it. That was good and normal. And the fantasy I had was abnormal. And I should probably talk to my therapist, Susan, about it. On Friday at 1 p.m. And so it kept drifting up and it took a breath. And then it went back down with bubbles coming out and it tilted itself back to horizontal and it started just swimming past me and under the boat. And this thing was so huge. It took forever. It felt like it felt like it was swimming in slow motion. I just watched its whole pale, glowing body kind of pass right in front of my face. Peacefully, gracefully. And its huge tail came by last.

And then it was gone. And I went back up to the surface this one here was so close right there came up surface right in front of me to breathe which was that was my goal I wanted to be looked at by a manatee. Look deep into your soul? No, she didn't. And I really was so jazzed. It was very profound. It just looked at me. How are you feeling right now? I feel good.

I feel happy. Yeah, I feel like weirdly fulfilled. Like a life mission has been fulfilled. What was it like? It was sweet. The people were sweet. I wonder where that manatee is now. I bet it's right near the same spot eating.

Eating grass. Taking a nap. Farting. near the same spot eating eating grass taking a nap farting sending bubbles up to the surface big jowls shaking while it chews its lettuce its grass This episode was produced by Caitlin Roberts and Larissa Anderson, with help from Crystal Duhaime. It was reported by me, Sam Anderson, and edited by Wendy Doerr and Larissa Anderson, with help from Crystal Duhaime. It was reported by me, Sam Anderson, and edited by Wendy Dorr and Larissa Anderson. It was engineered by Marion Lozano. Our executive producer is Paula Schumann.

Original music by Marion Lozano and Pat McCusker. Fact-checking by Enna Alvarado. Special thanks to Jake Silverstein, Sasha Weiss, and Sam Dolnick. Also to all the Manatee experts we met. Wayne Hartley, Martina DeVitt, Andy Garrett, Wanda Jones, and Tom Pitchford. And to Craig Pittman, who wrote the book Manatee Insanity, which was a great resource. You can listen to all of our episodes wherever you get podcasts, or visit our website at nytimes.com slash animal.

I'm Sam Anderson. Thanks for listening. Thank you.