Swimming with the manatees – a bucket list adventure in Crystal River, Florida!

Angie Colombo • 13 February 2023
Wildlife encounters
I’m lucky enough to have had several close encounters with wildlife in my life. Amongst the most memorable are being chased by hippo, owning various exotic pets including a mongoose, a chameleon and a Verreaux eagle owl and wading through crocodile-infested waters in the Serengeti. I was also supposed to swim with dolphins in New Zealand once but the dolphins didn’t show up!

On a recent trip to Florida, I was offered the opportunity to swim with manatees. Little did I know that I was about to be kissed by one as well! Manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. In Florida their main diet is seagrasses and other aquatic plants and they can spend up to 8 hours a day grazing. They are practically blind so don’t take kindly to being disturbed but are actually quite curious animals. 

Manatee tourism

The designated day arrived with an early wake-up call before dawn. We were staying in Florida’s Citrus County in a lovely property called Plantation on Crystal River. We were taken by bus to nearby Kings Bay to catch the boat which would take us on the short trip to Crystal River, Homosassa. 


Manatees roam the waters of Florida from April until October but when things get a bit chilly, they head to places like freshwater Florida springs, where the temperatures remain constant throughout the year. Each winter between 500 and 1000 manatees are drawn to Crystal River by three first magnitude spring systems, each with a temperature of around 23° C. This is the most important natural warm water refuge from the cold ocean waters for manatees along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Even in the warm summer months, up to 100 manatees will remain in the bay. Manatees can be seen all year-round  in Crystal River and there are several operators offering trips. We travelled with an excellent operation run by Explorida but it is also possible to do trips direct from Plantation on Crystal River as the property has river frontage.

Demonstrating the 'freeze and float'

Before we were let loose in the river, we were kitted out with special wetsuits which would enable us to float horizontally on the water and given a floatation device, snorkel, and goggles. We were then required to sign a waiver form and watch a short video giving us a detailed list of what not to do when we encountered a manatee. Amongst the list of instructions included advice not to stand on the manatees, swim over them (as they come up to breathe every 12 minutes or so), not to separate a mother and baby, not to kick our legs and generally not to disturb them too much – if in doubt, freeze and float was the mantra.

Kissed by a manatee

Within a short boat ride, we arrived at Three Sisters Spring. We entered the water which seemed very cold, especially when submerging your face. A short doggy-paddle like swim took us into the spring where we would be searching for manatee whilst using the floatation noodle to keep us buoyant. Within a very short amount of time, we spotted several manatees swimmimg around in the water. Some appeared to be sleeping and other swam about in a graceful fashion. All of a sudden, one approached me from the right, and swam right up to my face and kissed it! I was so shocked and didn’t quite know how to react. This wasn’t in the safety video! All I could think was to ‘freeze and float’ as instructed so that’s what I did. The curious manatee swam up to me several more times to plant a whiskery kiss upon my cheek. It truly was the most extraordinary experience!


After around an hour or so in the water, we returned to the boat for a very welcome hot chocolate. The experience was truly amazing, a privilege to experience and one I will never forget – definitely one for the bucket list!

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