Salt Springs Run Manatees

We have spent many nights in Salt Springs and never knew Manatees were frequent visitors here. There is a boat launch, ramps and gift shop. If you look close you can see tow of the Manatees (grey spots in the water).

You can see it’s back raising out of the water.

This looked like the smallest one…maybe 5 or 6 ft long. You can see several prop scars on it already.

In this photo you can see the same one, on the right,  with another much larger one.

Here are 3 of them together.

This Manatee swam right past our dingy. The white on the R is the back of our boat. You can see how close they came.

At first glance, this looks like the same Manatee in the photo above, but it’s not. Look at the different prop scars on this one. You can even see several on the tail. They are big and slow moving, and it’s hard to get out of the way if there are several boats and shallow waters. Yet they still seem to find us interesting.

Our dingy is 8’ long and this Manatee was much longer than that.

There is a Manatee under all the sparkles the wind and sunshine created.

Manatees come into Salt River Run Springs and Blue Springs because the water is warmer than the river during the winter. Blue Springs can have 90 or more at one time, and can be visited by car or by boat.

Salt River Run Springs has 15 that are regulars.

If you have a shallow draft boat you will have no trouble getting into Salt River Run. Be careful during the winter as that’s when you will be most apt to encounter Manatees on the Run.

We draw 3’ and can only get over the bar at the entrance when the water level in Lake George is up.