Thousands of tourists visit Florida’s coasts to see manatees. In Crystal River swimming and snorkeling with manatees is readily available, especially in the cooler months. It is illegal to harass, feed, offer water to or touch a manatee. So far in 2021 about 1,000 manatees have died. Most deaths were due to starvation as human behavior has impacted habitats, degraded water quality and increased pollution and nitrates that trigger toxic algal blooms. Manatees are large herbivores that eat marine grasses that die in clouded, polluted waters. We need to reinterpret or change the law to allow Fish and Wildlife personnel to feed starving manatee sea mammals. Without supplemental food, more manatees will die. The species may become extirpated from Florida and U.S. waters. Florida’s manatees are now in critical danger. Voters need to clamor for life-saving measures. Do we need an executive order to allow feeding manatees, or do we just let them become extinct?
West Indian Manatees, Trichecus manatus, forage for propeller-cut marine grasses at a boat launch ramp in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on Florida’s Atlantic coast. Citrus County residents Eddie Nelson (far right) and Karin Menning (beside her) watched as the large marine mammals fed among foamy water pollution. Aquatic grasses have become so scarce this year that more than a thousand manatees have died so far in 2021.
In 2018 Chronicle photographer Matt Beck took photos of manatees huddled around warm freshwater springs of Crystal River. Manatees drink freshwater, not seawater, and feed on several species of aquatic grasses. Snorkelers float on foam noodles outside the roped-off protection zone around this spring. It is illegal to harass, feed, water or touch manatees. So far in 2021 about 1,000 manatees have died mostly from starvation due to failure of the grasses that manatee herbivores need to eat. More will die if we the people do not tell our government to immediately reinterpret or change the law to allow emergency feeding. Immediate would have to be by an Executive Order. Ask our senators and representatives to act now before more manatees die.
Canadian visitor Joyce Findlay delighted in the manatee mailbox statue on the roadside near the Southwest First Street bridge in Crystal River. From this bridge, Jane counted at least 25 manatees in the Magnolia Springs that flank Three Sisters Spring Park.
While scouting for manatees along the Nature Coast in November, nature lovers cannot miss large colonies of Climbing Aster, Symphyotrichum carolinianus, with pale purple flowers. Florida has 25 aster species in the family Asteracea. Hunter Springs Park in Crystal River has many Climbing Asters in bloom this November.
Climbing Aster, Symphyotrichum carolinianus, is a woody-stemmed perennial shrub. It ranges in wetland habitats from Florida north through Georgia to South and North Carolina. It prefers full sun to part shade and is common along stream and riverbanks as here in Dunnellon’s beach park at the confluence of the Rainbow and Withlacoochee Rivers. The asters’ fluffy seed parachutes are the flowers’ calyx reduced to small hairs called a pappus.
In Crystal River in November, Hunter Springs Park’s water edges were a mass of bright yellow Narrowleaf Sunflowers, Helianthus angustifolius. These late-blooming perennial native plants can grow 6 feet tall in full sun to part shade and moist soils. It can survive seasonal flooding, but prolonged inundation will drown the roots. With regular supplemental irrigation and humus-rich amended soil, it can be grown in home gardens. Narrowleaf Sunflower grows in coastal and inland wetlands in the south-central and eastern United States. It ranges from Texas to Florida and north to Long Island in New York state.
Narrowleaf Sunflower, Helianthus angustifolius, is one of about 32,000 flowering plants in the huge aster family called Asteracea. The order Asterales within the Aster family has more than 1,900 genera. There are 25 asters native to Florida. Narrowleaf Sunflower has composite flowers made of bright yellow ray florets surrounding a central disk. The disk florets have pollen and nectar. Seeds develop after pollination by bees, butterflies, and other insects.
An adult Little Blue Heron, Egretta caerulea, is an egret but within the heron family Ardeidae. Juvenile Little Blues are white. The white wading bird with a black bill, yellow lores and yellow feet is an adult Snowy Egret, Egretta thula. Both are year-round resident breeding birds in Florida readily seen in and near shallow waters where they stalk prey animals.
A Little Blue, Egretta caerulea, in Hunter Springs Park in Crystal River searches for prey among pickerelweed, Pontederia cordata. In the Ardeidae Family Bitterns, egrets and herons eat fish, frogs, lizards, snails and any small animal they can catch and swallow.
Osprey are large diurnal birds of prey with hooked bills and strong talon claws for catching fish and occasionally other prey animals. They are year-round breeding species in Florida having a white head and prominent dark eye stripe reaching to the dark nape at the back of the neck. Ospreys are common throughout Florida near fresh or saltwater where they hunt. Nests are large bunches of sticks flown in one at a time, and often seen on artificial platforms erected by conservationists.
Some Sandhill Cranes, Grus canadensis, are year-round breeding residents in Florida. These two raised chicks on a golf course in Inverness. Most Sandhill cranes are migratory and breed as far north as the high arctic, tundra and boreal forests in Canada and Alaska. Others breed around the western Great Lakes and near the Rocky Mountains.
The Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis, is a small plump white heron. Non-breeding adults have a short yellow bill, yellowish legs and orange buffy plumes on the head, chest and back. Originally from the Africa, some flew to the Guianas in northeastern South America around 1877 and expanded into the USA by 1941 and nesting here by in 1953, according to The Cornell Lab Publishing group. Today Cattle Egrets are among the most abundant herons in North America. Prime feeding grounds for Cattle Egrets are in pastures where cattle disturb prey like grasshoppers, insects, and invertebrates.
Saltbush, Baccharis halimnifolia, is a tall native perennial shrub that often resembles a miniature tree. Both male and female plants have flowers in the fall In November female plants are covered in snow-white fluffy seed parachutes that need the wind for dispersal.
Female Saltbush plants develop seeds bearing fluffy hairs that work like parachutes to disperse the seeds in the wind. Locally both male and female saltbush plants have tiny flowers they are yellow when in bud and white when open. Saltbush is a tall native perennial shrub to small tree. were covered in snow-white fluffy seed parachutes that awaited the wind for dispersal.
Native Wax Myrtle, Morella cerifera, is a large evergreen shrub to small tree native to Florida and the U.S. southeastern coastal plain as far north as New Jersey. Wax Myrtle produces seed on female plants. Highly fragrant, narrow alternate leaves, 1 to 5 inches long, are bluntly toothed toward the tips. It grows in many habitats including coastal wetlands, back dunes, edges of swamps and upland woods from Florida west to Texas and north to New Jersey as well as on some West Indies islands in the Caribbean Sea. It is a host plant for Red-banded butterfly caterpillars.
Fruit and seeds develop only on female Wax Myrtle plants. Wax Myrtle fruit is a tiny bluish, round drupe about 1/8th inch in diameter. The bumpy outer coating is waxy and formerly used in making aromatic candles.
Thousands of tourists visit Florida’s coasts to see manatees. In Crystal River swimming and snorkeling with manatees is readily available, especially in the cooler months. It is illegal to harass, feed, offer water to or touch a manatee. So far in 2021 about 1,000 manatees have died. Most deaths were due to starvation as human behavior has impacted habitats, degraded water quality and increased pollution and nitrates that trigger toxic algal blooms. Manatees are large herbivores that eat marine grasses that die in clouded, polluted waters. We need to reinterpret or change the law to allow Fish and Wildlife personnel to feed starving manatee sea mammals. Without supplemental food, more manatees will die. The species may become extirpated from Florida and U.S. waters. Florida’s manatees are now in critical danger. Voters need to clamor for life-saving measures. Do we need an executive order to allow feeding manatees, or do we just let them become extinct?
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
West Indian Manatees, Trichecus manatus, forage for propeller-cut marine grasses at a boat launch ramp in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on Florida’s Atlantic coast. Citrus County residents Eddie Nelson (far right) and Karin Menning (beside her) watched as the large marine mammals fed among foamy water pollution. Aquatic grasses have become so scarce this year that more than a thousand manatees have died so far in 2021.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
In 2018 Chronicle photographer Matt Beck took photos of manatees huddled around warm freshwater springs of Crystal River. Manatees drink freshwater, not seawater, and feed on several species of aquatic grasses. Snorkelers float on foam noodles outside the roped-off protection zone around this spring. It is illegal to harass, feed, water or touch manatees. So far in 2021 about 1,000 manatees have died mostly from starvation due to failure of the grasses that manatee herbivores need to eat. More will die if we the people do not tell our government to immediately reinterpret or change the law to allow emergency feeding. Immediate would have to be by an Executive Order. Ask our senators and representatives to act now before more manatees die.
MATTHEW BECK/Chronicle file
Canadian visitor Joyce Findlay delighted in the manatee mailbox statue on the roadside near the Southwest First Street bridge in Crystal River. From this bridge, Jane counted at least 25 manatees in the Magnolia Springs that flank Three Sisters Spring Park.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
While scouting for manatees along the Nature Coast in November, nature lovers cannot miss large colonies of Climbing Aster, Symphyotrichum carolinianus, with pale purple flowers. Florida has 25 aster species in the family Asteracea. Hunter Springs Park in Crystal River has many Climbing Asters in bloom this November.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
Climbing Aster, Symphyotrichum carolinianus, is a woody-stemmed perennial shrub. It ranges in wetland habitats from Florida north through Georgia to South and North Carolina. It prefers full sun to part shade and is common along stream and riverbanks as here in Dunnellon’s beach park at the confluence of the Rainbow and Withlacoochee Rivers. The asters’ fluffy seed parachutes are the flowers’ calyx reduced to small hairs called a pappus.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
In Crystal River in November, Hunter Springs Park’s water edges were a mass of bright yellow Narrowleaf Sunflowers, Helianthus angustifolius. These late-blooming perennial native plants can grow 6 feet tall in full sun to part shade and moist soils. It can survive seasonal flooding, but prolonged inundation will drown the roots. With regular supplemental irrigation and humus-rich amended soil, it can be grown in home gardens. Narrowleaf Sunflower grows in coastal and inland wetlands in the south-central and eastern United States. It ranges from Texas to Florida and north to Long Island in New York state.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
Narrowleaf Sunflower, Helianthus angustifolius, is one of about 32,000 flowering plants in the huge aster family called Asteracea. The order Asterales within the Aster family has more than 1,900 genera. There are 25 asters native to Florida. Narrowleaf Sunflower has composite flowers made of bright yellow ray florets surrounding a central disk. The disk florets have pollen and nectar. Seeds develop after pollination by bees, butterflies, and other insects.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
An adult Little Blue Heron, Egretta caerulea, is an egret but within the heron family Ardeidae. Juvenile Little Blues are white. The white wading bird with a black bill, yellow lores and yellow feet is an adult Snowy Egret, Egretta thula. Both are year-round resident breeding birds in Florida readily seen in and near shallow waters where they stalk prey animals.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
A Little Blue, Egretta caerulea, in Hunter Springs Park in Crystal River searches for prey among pickerelweed, Pontederia cordata. In the Ardeidae Family Bitterns, egrets and herons eat fish, frogs, lizards, snails and any small animal they can catch and swallow.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
Osprey are large diurnal birds of prey with hooked bills and strong talon claws for catching fish and occasionally other prey animals. They are year-round breeding species in Florida having a white head and prominent dark eye stripe reaching to the dark nape at the back of the neck. Ospreys are common throughout Florida near fresh or saltwater where they hunt. Nests are large bunches of sticks flown in one at a time, and often seen on artificial platforms erected by conservationists.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
Some Sandhill Cranes, Grus canadensis, are year-round breeding residents in Florida. These two raised chicks on a golf course in Inverness. Most Sandhill cranes are migratory and breed as far north as the high arctic, tundra and boreal forests in Canada and Alaska. Others breed around the western Great Lakes and near the Rocky Mountains.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
The Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis, is a small plump white heron. Non-breeding adults have a short yellow bill, yellowish legs and orange buffy plumes on the head, chest and back. Originally from the Africa, some flew to the Guianas in northeastern South America around 1877 and expanded into the USA by 1941 and nesting here by in 1953, according to The Cornell Lab Publishing group. Today Cattle Egrets are among the most abundant herons in North America. Prime feeding grounds for Cattle Egrets are in pastures where cattle disturb prey like grasshoppers, insects, and invertebrates.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
Saltbush, Baccharis halimnifolia, is a tall native perennial shrub that often resembles a miniature tree. Both male and female plants have flowers in the fall In November female plants are covered in snow-white fluffy seed parachutes that need the wind for dispersal.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
Female Saltbush plants develop seeds bearing fluffy hairs that work like parachutes to disperse the seeds in the wind. Locally both male and female saltbush plants have tiny flowers they are yellow when in bud and white when open. Saltbush is a tall native perennial shrub to small tree. were covered in snow-white fluffy seed parachutes that awaited the wind for dispersal.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
Native Wax Myrtle, Morella cerifera, is a large evergreen shrub to small tree native to Florida and the U.S. southeastern coastal plain as far north as New Jersey. Wax Myrtle produces seed on female plants. Highly fragrant, narrow alternate leaves, 1 to 5 inches long, are bluntly toothed toward the tips. It grows in many habitats including coastal wetlands, back dunes, edges of swamps and upland woods from Florida west to Texas and north to New Jersey as well as on some West Indies islands in the Caribbean Sea. It is a host plant for Red-banded butterfly caterpillars.
JANE WEBER/Special to the Chronicle
Fruit and seeds develop only on female Wax Myrtle plants. Wax Myrtle fruit is a tiny bluish, round drupe about 1/8th inch in diameter. The bumpy outer coating is waxy and formerly used in making aromatic candles.
Many native plants bloom in late autumn along the Nature Coast. November morning temperatures may slip down into the 40s just before sunrise and afternoon temperatures may not reach 80 degrees. Modern, well-insulated homes have little need for heating or cooling during autumn.
Florida is the third-most populous state in the U.S. More people arrive daily to live here permanently. Entire forests and building lots are clear-cut, leaving no shade trees to cool new homes and subdivisions. Trees and green plants use carbon dioxide to help mitigate global warming, produce oxygen for humans and animals to breathe, store carbon and provide wildlife with cover from predators, perches, nest sites, pollen, nectar, seeds and food.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.