No. It's a manatee!
No wind in SE Florida right now, that's for sure. So why not hit the reef and take some pictures, viz. is pretty good.
Baby Trigger Fish on the way out.
The guys are hanging out on the reef.
Make sure you don't step on one of these rays while walking on the flats.
There's a current running, so I swim a mile or so down current along the reef and start to walk waaaay back up the beach. Wait, there's something big and brown slopping around in the shallows. Whatisit? Tourist guy asks, "IS THAT A SHARK?" No, it's a few manatee.
I was lucky to come across these guys with fairly clear nearshore water with a digital camera. The last time I saw a pod of four manatee swimming along in clear water in the ocean, I think I was about 18.
I was careful to aviod disturbing or spooking them. By nature, they are pretty low key and docile. More importantly, disturbing manatees is against the law. More about this at:
http://www.floridaconservation.org/p...atee/guide.htm
and
http://www.animalinfo.org/species/tricmana.htm
If I recall correctly, they used to naturally occur in Florida but vanished at some point, perhaps during a period of glaciation. You can find their bones in caves in Central Florida Springs. They were reintroduced to Florida to try to control exotic water vegetation earlier in the last century. Today of course, they are easy prey to powerboats as some of the back scars demonstrate on these individuals. I heard more recently from a manatee expert in Central Florida that this isn't true. Henry Flagler did try to introduce manatee to Florida but they have been around continuously for a very long time in Florida.
Vanishing into the haze ...
Seeya Guys! Thanks for swimming by! The wind waiting continues ... the safe useable kind, NOT what Hurricane Francis might
bring in about a week. Good luck guys.