attacked (?) by a MANATEE!!!

I was hugging the shore line of John U. Lloyd State Park on Sunday when I saw a splash in the water on the front port side of my large (36-in wide) kayak (Hobie Mirage Outback). I thought it was a large fish that I disturbed like a tarpon or some sturgeon-like thing. In a split second I tried to stabilize my kayak and the left side lifted up and flipped over, tossing me into the water. My first thought was "how am I going to get back in the kayak" and my second thought was "what the hell was that thing?" I hit the surface of the water with my paddle to try to scare whatever it was away. But I realized that I had better get back into the kayak ASAP. I turned it over and hopped back in (the water was only about 3-4 feet deep, thankfully). My friend with me said she saw a horizontal tail and no dorsal fin, so we assumed that this must have been a manatee.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this before? When we got back in, everyone at the kayak rental place looked pretty doubtful of our story. I have no idea what it was, b/c I never saw anything except my face hitting the surface of the water.

I have had porpoises come and bump me decently hard before several times in a row at night... seemed they were basically telling me to get away from there school of fish.

My first thought was "how am I going to get back in the kayak"

That's why you have to practice self rescues, could you have gotten back in the kayak if you were in 10' of water.

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KFA-NY
Founding Member

Manatees are big gentle giants and I have never heard of attacks or any kind of aggressive behavior. I do know they come to the surface frequently to breath and blow water out their nose holes which you can often see from far away. This guy may have however just surfaced under your kayak, which is what got you into trouble. We often had them surface right along side our boat 25 years ago when I dove and snorkeled king springs at crystal river florida. This was long before the manatee was put into protection with special estuaries. They actually used to approach us as divers and swim real close or kinda nudge or nuzzle our flippers, like they were perplexed by what they were.
Carol

I have been kayaking for a grand total of about 9 months and I have had many manatee encounters in that short time. I kayak in the Central Florida area. I have seen them thrash their tails, lift kayaks out of the water, blow their blowholes, etc. All of which are instant "I am going to die" experiences - thankfully though short-lived! They manage to get into places that I would not expect them to. If you are interested do a google earth search for the Melbourne-Tillman Dam on Turkey Creek in Palm Bay, FL. You can follow it out to the Indian River. Work backwards from the Indian River and see how Turkey Creek all but disappears into a jungle before clearing out by the Melbourne-Tillman Dam. We have kayaked it many times and there always are Manatees by the dam. I am still not sure how they manage to navigate the shallows through the jungle to get back there though (unless they got there when they were young and ended up getting too big to get back to the river).
Primarily though we see them in the Indian and Banana Rivers. That is where they usually scare the willies out of us!

imagine your a big grazer on the shallow bottom minding your own business when suddenly a large shadow passes over or very close to you. oh my god, what's that!!!! i think we startle the big beasties sometimes.
hey, Titan4 i'm in palm bay. if you see a yellow AI or ugly Wave in the Indian River Lagoon anywhere from Pineda Causeway(Performance Sail & Sport) south to Sebastian(Captain Hiram's) it's probably me. i launch from Grant(Jorgenson Landing) most of the time.

Yes it does happen but more of a curiosity or accidental encounter than an attack per say as far as getting knocked over. They do investigate kayaks often. Spilling one is purely accidental.

here are a few examples of encounters on U Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv7xim_k1q8

a good one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKn0A1A7 ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WixhGEvJKaY

It happens more often than one imagines. They are big and very strong and one coming up under you can easily throw you from your kayak. They do not show aggression but childish curiosity. For all they know the hull of the kayak is another manatee and a play friend. As you can see in the videos they push each other around in a playful push and shove.

A family friend was in the ocean off Ft. Lauderdale at low tide thinking her husband had just swam between her legs so she sat on him only to find it was a manatee. She walked on water back to shore.
I encountered a group swimming along the shore off commercial pier and one swam towards me and as I floated on the surface he went under me and surfaced brushing my back. Water was murky I only saw a huge submerged cigar shape shadow moving toward me so needless to say I chit my chorts. Talk about stomach in throat. I realized it was a manatee after he surfaced along side me venting his snout. 3 others surfaced just out a ways from me. I was in 4 feet of water.

So in answer to your query DieselYak .. yes it happens maybe not too often but it does happen and those who doubt it just don't know! Your location on the Intracoastal along John Lloyd park is a frequented place for manatees especially during winter months. They love the warm waters of the cooling canal for the power plant.

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I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

Hey antbric! I will have to look you up sometime! I work for Lockheed Martin at the cape and we have a group there that gets together on weekends for kayaking. We had 17 in our party for the Sebastian River about a month ago. We also like the Econlockhatchee River near Orlando too. I don't mind manatee encounters. I am hopeful I don't have an alligator encounter sometime!
Here is a handy website to check waterflow data:
http://www.thetent.com/thetent/aogcr/fl/flsf_index.htm

my father retired from lockheed martin about a year ago. he worked in the complex comm center at the cape.
i'm not much for going into rivers but i'd like to join a half day expedition. are the places you go to mirage drive friendly? [email protected].

But they can startle and try to buck off whatever passing object brushes up against them. I read of about 4 such incidents mentioned on KFS

Whenever I'm pedaling/paddling around manatees, I make certain my Mirage Drive flippers are retracted up against the hull of my Outback or Sport so that the chance of contact with a manatee is minimized. For example, this guy surfaced just off my bow and then dove under the hull. I had the Mirage Drive fully retracted and my paddle shipped so as to prevent any contact with the body of the manatee.



A friend over on KFS in South Florida had a manatee make contact with his Mirage Drive flippers and found himself being catapulted straight up several feet above the water surface with enough force to actually bend the Mirage Drive masts and almost dump him. Manatees are normally pretty docile and cool among kayakers, but we need to also be cool and try to avoid any and all physical contact with them with fins, paddles, rudders, whatever. Here was a pair just off my starboard beam that were busy engaging in some courtship adventures, and I for sure didn't want to interfere in their fun and games as they swam under and around my yak.

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So far my encounters with gentle giants in a kayak have been minimal. I was surrounded by 3 in North Biscayne Bay while trout fishing but they kept their distance.
I was paddling the Wilton Manors Loop near I-95 and when passing under a bridge my pedals stopped dead and my kayak lifted a foot abruptly and settled I can only assume I pedaled right over one. Manatees frequent that section of the loop. It is unnerving to say the least when your yak suddenly lifts and nearly capsizes so a full turtle would suck! I have been lucky so far.

One point we have to admit to:
We are lucky to have such encounters for not so long ago these gentle wonders of the animal kingdom were almost brought to extiniction .. so nice to have them around and once again in populations that do permit such encounters.

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I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

Revo said:

Hey Revo,
Right on--I completely agree! It's a pretty amazing experience to be surrounded by a pod of about 6, adults and juveniles, while drifting down the Wakulla River just a few miles from home. Problem is the stinkpotters who are blasting full bore up the river only about 30 feet away. It is often difficult to see the manatees in the dark water anyway, but virtually impossible when traveling about 25-30 knots upstream in the middle of the river. Further upstream from where I saw this group there was a manatee restricted speed zone. Trouble is the manatees have difficulty reading the signs from the water, as do some of the bass boaters, so that is where the conflict arises.

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It's good to hear that this is more common than I thought. I have been chastised by my nature-loving friends who think I attacked the manatee. Also, they really REALLY don't like me using the word "attack," so maybe I meant to use "encounter" to describe the event.

I was out this past weekend again and stayed in the deeper waters. Our group saw about 5 or 6 manatees and about 100 iguanas around the BURT (Broward Urban River Trail)...a 18-mile loop around Fort Lauderdale. Lots of fun!

DieselYak,

You definitely are in my area. Try the Wilton Manors loop sometime.
A nice trip of about 7.5 miles.







A nice leisurely paddle. You can launch off the metal docks at
Richardson Historical Park
1937 Wilton Drive
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334

Here is a list of Broward & Dade launch sites prepared by a member of the South Florida Kayaking Meetup Group a good bunch of folks

http://home.mindspring.com/~rspitzer/index.html

Might bump into you one day on the water.

_________________
I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.