Manatees finally return to these restored Florida rivers | WILD HOPE
Crystal River has long been a safe haven for the Florida manatee, but when an invasive algae wiped out the eelgrass that manatees need for food, the community rallied to restore the river and save the animals that call it home.
After an unexpected storm forever changed Crystal River more than three decades ago, Lisa Moore founded Save Crystal River to rally the community to garner funding for a massive restoration project. Sea and Shoreline’s Jessica Mailliez demonstrates the dirty work they do to remove invasive algae and restore native eelgrass. This transformation has allowed Florida manatees to return to Crystal River, but for those living along the west coast of the state, the situation is much more dire.
There, manatees are declining fast - nearly two thousand have died from starvation since 2020 along the Indian River Lagoon. Zoo Tampa has been rescuing as many starving manatees as they can hold, saving them from death and prepping them for re-release into the wild. Fortunately for the manatees ready to return to the wild, they have a safe destination: Crystal River. The strides made in that small community hold promise for a path forward for manatees across the state.
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This is what we need people trained and paid to do, the real work of restoration
then start donating! there is quite literally zero economic incentive to do this stuff, and in fact there is negative incentive because in order to prevent pollution they must fight against a ton of businesses and local governments
@@lasagnapig630 I mean that's not really true tourism is our biggest money draw and people come for the theme parks and Florida's natural beauty so it should be important to take care of the environment
any sincere effort is recognized....government will do nothing to preserve the natural environment
@@lasagnapig630the idea that there is an economic disincentive for conservation efforts is honestly not that sound. There are MASSIVE economic downsides to this, it's just that a jerk named Jack Welch promoted a corporate business strategy that prioritizes quarterly (short-term) profits over long-term stability. They know this is a disaster and they shouldn't be doing it, but they're insulated from the consequences by money, geography, etc. If you want to change a system, you have to understand how it works. It's no different than restoring the river tbh.
@@RobertJamesChinneryHSir, have you heard of Teddy Roosevelt, the National Park system, the EPA, or Fish and Wildlife services? We have agencies and organizations at every level of government that /are and have been/ doing this work for /decades/. Don't you dare erase lifetimes of human effortand research because it doesn't mesh with... I guess your jaundiced, defeatist attitude towards the fools in Florida's statehouse and governor's mansion? It's embarrassing and insulting to people who are putting in the work, given you just seem to be bellyaching in a KZhead comment section.
I grew up on CR's clear waters in the 70's and saw the decline first hand over the years. I'm so impressed with the restoration efforts! The river is clear again and the manatees are thriving. Thank you for this wonderful video!
This is a really beautiful story.
Save Crystal River sued the govt. to have manatees downlisted to threatened. The eelgrass is now all dead after Hurricane Idalia. This is old footage. The only eelgrass they did plant is in the canals behind the wealthy waterfront homeowners homes. Now they promote themselves as the manatees' saviors so they will get $$$ and that is what it is all about.
It is. It also should never have gotten as bad as it did. Prevention saves more that restoration.
We, as a country, need to incentivize conservation. Most of our economy is based around ruthless exploitation of the natural environment, but what use is the wealth to buy a boat if your rivers are poisoned? What’s the use of fine hiking shoes if there are no forests to hike in? Nature-undamaged, untainted nature-is far more valuable than the sum of water, wood, and stone it contains. We need to find a means to measure that, and decide how to use it wisely. Stories of restoration are heartwarming, but preservation saves more than restoration.
Conversation herds Serve active concerned nations Seagrass scuba club #haiku #ecosystem #ourhands #conservation
We have national parks which preserve nature
@@Dyinchugnan969I think that’s nice and all but I think we as a species should also preserve or develop our local wildlife more like these people
As a Floridian, i truly feel blessed to live here. This brought tear to my eyes.
Manatees are great
I'm happy the sea potatoes have their river back.
Thank you for saving manatees.
So proud of my community for this!
Great work because we all need a healthy environment
thankgod someone helped fix the rivers
This was fascinating. I was out at crystal river a long time ago and it truly was beautiful. Clear, deep, huge fish, even bigger alligators and I kayaked up to the springs side by side with one of those gators. It was a wonderful experience. I actually live very close to Indian River Lagoon, so it's good to know they are trying to clean that up.
It's really awesome to see work being done to protect our world. Everything we do has an impact, so the more good there is done the better!
This is a fantastic tribute to the tireless work of ecologically based people power! ❤ Thank you for this video!
It is so sad to go to the fishbowl in Homosasa State Park in Crystal River. The fish used to nearly block out the sunlight but now it's just algae. When you compare it with historical pictures it's almost unrecognizable 😢
They spray herbicide on the aquatic plants and get huge money grants to do it with tax payers dollars. The lack of plants and the huge mass of suddenly dead plants causes algae to thrive and it kills the ecosystem. K Nep Environment youtube Channel has videos of them starving manatee to death and spraying lakes and endangered bird nests too.
No longer recognizable from the ads from the 1980s that said "bowl of 10000 fish"
These people are heroes ❤🙏🙏they save our land and water
Manatees are some of the most amazing animals on the planet it’s our responsibility to protect them ❤❤❤❤
Love this story, thank you Crystal River family.
Love the manatees...so relaxing watching them...
This is really amazing. Hopefully the restoration projects will continue spreading to other rivers across Florida for the benefit everyone
I AM PROUD OF YOU
Ty Lisa..& everyone involved..God Speed!
8:37 wow, terrific graphic explanation, thank you for your efforts🎉🎉
I grew up in Florida,we where always careful boating, and love the sea cows
4:00 you can still see this stuff in Florida. If you ever see a creek or stream with a fluffy bottom don't get in it, the muck can be deeper then the water looks. Lots of stagnant water retention ponds in neighborhoods are filled with the hydra grass stuff. As someone who grew up boating and fishing around these magnificent creatures thank you for helping protect them. I spent a lot of time in and around the Indian and Banana rivers. Some people seem to think Florida is all swampland and gators but even staying in the urban areas of florida you can see so many animals you would never see walking down your neighborhood street most places. Sandhill cranes, manatees and dolphins (in coastal or river areas) unique butterflies and snakes (vast majority of will probably be invasive or the iconic black racer (an all black non venomous rodent constricting snake thats lightning fast and loves to jump scare you by remaining completely still till you get close then racing away. Harmless and want nothing to do with humans so much so that when picked up they will just continue to try to slither out of your hands as fast as they can. They are very hard to hold.)
Thank you for a beautiful story of people who got involved with such an important mission. !!!!!!!!! They didn’t sit back and complain, they got to work. This restores my faith in humanity.
Wonderful ❤👏🏻 I have been to the Manatee Viewing Center and look forward to visiting Crystal Springs ☺️
Glad to see manatees being helped.
Thank you to all the awesome people trying to save these beautiful creatures and habitats.
Dude when i see footage of manatees eating, i just wanna cry bro. Beautiful mermaids!.
🇺🇸These people are American Heroes.
- I agree 👍🏽❤
Thank you.
Thank you so much. I lived on the intercoastal in West Palm Beach. And it was horrible the way they had no food. And another thing was the propellers on the boat. They put around propalace. I saw so many injured manatees. It broke my heart. Thank you for your service save The manatees❤
My great aunt & uncle moved to CR when I was little because they loved the manatees. Visiting them and watching the decline from the 80's/90's was heartbreaking. My family is long gone from the area but it's nice to know what brought them there is making a good comeback.
- This is such a beautiful story. I'm so glad to see people caring to rebuild. ❤
I'm from Indiana and have Florida family, my granddaughter is the manager at Crystal River Kayak and Dive Company. I make it to Florida about twice a year and love to see the manatees, they amaze me. The springs are beautiful, they look like a painting. I would recommend Crystal River and Homosassa Springs to everyone.❤
I really think these activities are important. The Manatee is natural living treasure. My question is beside the evasive plants, how often does manatee populations cycle due to nature.
I grew up in Titusville FL, and there's a mcdonalds right next to the indian river and I swear I hated it when mom took me there because the smell of the indian river was just horrendous. Even when driving on Washington AVE, which is right next to the river was horrible because you could just smell it in the car. I'm glad something is finally being done about it
It's half ass though. Locals have long advocated for a channel to be dug directly across the barrier island across from haulover canal to allow the lagoon to vent to the ocean. At most it would cost the county 10 million. And we would see results immediately. The channel doesn't have to be permanent. It can be filled back in after a few years. The water gets stuck on the north end because sabastian is very far south and ponce inlet is still pretty far north. It doesn't mean we don't address the issues that got us here but we are spending billions for miniscule results. It's all about contracts and tax payers money. It's why I voted no on renwing the tax for Indiana River restoration. A billion dollars for it to maybe be cleaned up after I'm dead. No thank you. I live now. If I'm gonna pay now then let's do something now. All the people who oppose it say it won't fix the problems that caused it. I agree. Who the heck said we couldn't do both. Do triage by digging a channel to vent the lagoon, and continue efforts. I suspect the venting may ha e such a positive impact they don't want to lose all that sweet monet being contracted out to friends, families, associates ect. Look at sedation inlet, ponce inlet, look miles north and south from it and you'll see a vast difference in water quality. Look at the canal lock at port Canaveral and see the water quality on the ocean side vs the banana river side.
@@adamtedder1012sounds like you’ve got what you deserve.
@@IcelanderUSer how so?
Sending love from Florida 💚
That is great to see that one river is getting restored but horrible to see that we are killing what we have now at the same time. Silver Springs is an example. How in so fragile ecosystem motor boats are allowed is beyond me. Roaring along, not even able to actually see what is under them anyway, causing banks erosion, etc. One of the few places where I actually saw wood duck, scared by boat and disappeared, of course. The only hope is young generation will grow to become better people.
Luckily most young people can no longer afford motor boats lol
This is a good example of elders protecting nature because they remember what nature can be, not just what it looks like now. More elders should be utilized in this way, because they have much to contribute and it shows the community in Western societies that they are part of the community's health.
❤❤❤❤ thank you
I love this, especially because I adore Manatees. It would be such a dream to visit and get to see them up close. They are so precious.
To all involved thank you so much.
This is amazing:)) Ty sm for all you guys did💖
Fantastic!
Here on Vancouver Island, Canada, it has been a lifelong dream to visit Florida, to see manatees and the Everglades… I was aware of the destruction there caused by human development, but this video showing the commitment to restoration in Florida, gives me hope for the whole world. Thank you ladies, biologists, government bodies, volunteers and the rest!!
REALLY love this story! My family lived in Florida 40 years ago, and this was one of our favorite places to go! Also, love the voice of the narrator!
What a great one! Thanks! 👍
LOVE YOU ,,thanks to you i was inspire to start my native garden, ❤started watching you before i moved to Fl
Thanks to those local warriors.
Yet we give the environment very little thought When we vote. These programs need increased funding as the climate crisis worsens. Remember that when you choose your representatives.
Excellent! Thank you!
These are my favorite animals of all time❤❤❤ We need to do better by them. They're angels
I was there in 1987 and played in a band right on the river. I forget what the place was called. But during the day we'd go down to the river and see the Manatees. It was pretty cool. That was my only time there as I returned to update NY in the fall of 87 and never got to go back. I didn't about any of this. Glad they figured it out.
Yaaayyy,these positive steps to restore is what we need .
This so great! 😊
Wooooow! I love this and i love the manatees!❤️❤️ great job everyone in the Crystal River comunity🙌🙌🙌🙌
These people are true hero's 👍
I agree!
I was able to swim with the manatees at Crystal Hot Springs many years ago before it was closed… incredible experience 👍🏽👍🏼👍🏾👍🏿
Awesome story. I grew ups just down the road from there and went to college at UF so this is so wonderful to hear.
I grew up in Central Fla on the St John’s River back in the day I have swam with manatees I can member manatees by the hundreds through the winter at blue Springs Crystal River, Wekiva River I have spent my life on the water different times of the year I would fish Indian river quite a bit. You didn’t see a manatee every time but you should’ve seen them often living on the St. Johns River. We called them residence because they stayed there yr round you could always identify them from each other not only by size, but unfortunately the marks on there back my mother was a veterinarian She would see some at work doing good and if I remember right, it was Seaworld that would come and catch them and take care of them often my mother would help with the care and was even involved when it came time to reintroduce the manatees back into the River I would go to Crystal River scalloping you’ll be down there picking next thing you know here comes a manatee cruising slowly, right beside you sometimes they would even stop and check you out they can be very curious I have had them come right up to me checking me out a few minutes later they would roll on there side and start rubbing up against me as if they have a itch that needed scratching it always amazed me. Just tell gentle they are when they outlawed swimming or touching the manatees I knew it was for the best it was for the best in the Manatee. When I come up right beside you and rub up against you you just can’t help but to stay let them do their thing it’s so hard not to take your hands and rub their backs I cannot say that I didn’t even though I wasn’t supposed to, but I did not go swim to them, harassing them that I can promise one of the nicest thing that happened to me I was at Crystal River late in the scallop season picking scallops a big female came up beside me probably 20 feet or so. She checked me out for a long time I just kept swimming around looking for scallops. Eventually, she was a matter of feet beside me. She followed me as I look for scallops I would see a scallop I would put it in my bag and go back to looking around for more she stayed with me she would even start eating right beside me as I picked up a scallop. I bet she stayed with me 3 1/2 hours or more like she was my partner I never did touch her. She never touched me. She just followed something. I’ll never forget. They are truly a magnificent creature. As long as I live there always be a special spot in my heart for them. I’m very fortunate to have experienced and seen, the things I have in the waters of Florida
So proud of these people.
This is a fantastic tribute to the tireless work of ecologically based people power! Thank you for this video!
Hi my favorite story about my interaction with manatees. I was in Key Largo camping with some friends and we were hanging out in the ocean. All of a sudden a baby manatee came up to us and started swimming around us. We didn’t dare touch it but boy was it tempting. All of a sudden we hear the mom make noises which we assumed was telling the baby it’s time to move on. The baby swim back to the mother and right before she got to her mom she turned around and came back and swim around us a few more times. The mother once again made a noise, and the baby went back to the mother and off they swam. It might not sound like anything big to most of you, but to us, it was a memory that we still hold near and dear to our hearts. I was very fortunate i lived in Dade County on a lake that was connected to the Everglades and once in a while, we would have a manatee or two come and visit. It was rare but when you heard there were manatees you would run out to the pier and hope to spot one. It’s the only time you got to see all your neighbors well except for that time a alligator got over the fence from the Everglades and…. That’s a whole other story. Thank you for sharing this I now live in the Indian river area and I love it here thank you for bringing attention to our beautiful sea cows. They are beautiful and fascinating animals. And thank you for all the hard work that y’all have put in to save them.
I'm at Blue Springs. We had the highest number this year ever! So glad their numbers are growing!
Good evening from Australia 6:45pm EADT Monday 15 January 2024 1. Save 2Rescue 3 Recover Restore A wonderful Restoring and recovering Nature Story #disasterpreparedness #worldpeace Thank you
Jimmy Carter would approve. A Habitat for huge Manattes ❤
Lol
Excellent to hear
Thank God for the work being done finally at Indian River🙏❤️🙏 I moved from ft Myers and being familiar w/crystal to Orlando and taking the kids to Indian River and I was shocked! Also lots of invasive pufferfish & lionfish.
Precious. ❤❤
Amazing conservation effort by real life heroes....kudos to the team and may the habitat of manatees be always as beautiful as the waters of crystal clear..God bless 💕💕
I was lucky enough to actually see a manatee in the ocean one time. Ngl I freak out, thought it was a shark at first. Haven’t been in the ocean since
Amazing, congrats
Awesome
Having swam in Crystal river 10-12 years ago or so, gotta say it was magnificent to swim with the manatees, there even was a baby that found us very curious and came over to us to see what we were all about, that was until mom called him back.
awesome!
I love that place. I’m from East Tennessee, mountains everywhere. But if I could I would live in crystal river. Or homasassa.
Canals are the root of the problem as they are connected to rivers and release waste water into them. Instead the waste water should be directed into the Everglades like it is naturally meant to.
I’ll be coming to Florida next year. I am determined to come dive with manatee.
Great work by them! And great footage! But, live, growing Hydrilla doesn't deplete oxygen levels, as implied, it release oxygen when it grows. Hydrilla isn't sea water tolerant, but tolerates some salt, and can grow back from die offs caused by temporary seawater influx. Thing is that huge efforts has been made to get rid of Hydrilla using herbicides, because it's considered invasive, not because it has some property that makes it inherently bad for the ecosystem. For one thing, manatees eat Hydrilla, it's not toxic. I don't know all the details of the case, but it seems unlikely that temporary seawater influx would kill off enough Hydrilla for that to be the main reason for the problems. While some strains of Vallisneria americana, the freshwater eelgrass, in this situation can tolerate higher salinity than Hydrilla can, it's not like the Vallisneria would have been perfectly fine efter seawater influx that killed off most of the Hydrilla in a large area, it's more like you'd have a limited area where the Vallisneria would have survived where the Hydrilla didn't. So, while I don't actually know, it seems much more plausible to me that attempts to "save" the ecosystem from Hydrilla, using herbicides, was the biggest problem, than the fact that Hydrilla got helped by humans getting there in the first place. And there are a host of other factors involved too, as usual. It would take some absurd competitor to outcompete Vallisneria americana on it's own home turf, without help from humans. Just killing off unwanted fast growing plant species, essentially because they're not "supposed" to be there, with herbicides, in such ecosystems, well, doesn't require a genius to figure out that's a bad idea. Such amounts of Lyngbya on the other hand, is problematic, potentially very problematic. It's great that there are people clever enough to realize that just killing it and leaving it to rot isn't a solution. Sure, it's a lot of work to remove it, but that actually helps, instead of making the situation worse.
❤❤❤
2:20 my grandma moves here in about 2006 in Hommassasa florida right nect to cyrtal river and ever year on vacation we would always go see the manatees and one time on highschool in like 2015 on vacation we had a nice hotel on the river that lead to the gulf and a group of matatees came swimming by and i jumped in the swim with them and was so scared i jumped right out..even tho i 100% knew they were friendly..i still hopoed right out.
This gives me hope! What did they do with the algae goo ?
good story here,
This episode is better than Jacques Cousteau of the 1970s.
Forever. If you live there why not? Virginia to Texas? That's mind boggling! People suck. These animals deserve a warm home.
I saw a couple in St John's River a few years ago in Green Cove outside of St Augustine and Jax.. it was pretty neat. The locals say they're there often in the area
I've read a news a few days ago about the thriving population of manatees in Florida. I did not know this was the reason.
11:12 in transcript 11:22 in footage Managing the fallout
❤️❤️❤️🏆🏆🏆
Tardigrades are just a type of manatee
If you would like the sea grass to grow and manatees to live long term, then all of your efforts are going to ultimately fail unless Florida as a whole does one important thing... STOP MINING PHOSPHATE/URANIUM. Phosphate/uranium mining by The Mosaic Company and others account for the second largest revenue maker for the state. The Central Florida Phosphate District (CFPD) is a massive sixty-year-old scar across the landscape. Local wildlife around the mines show signs of mining related deaths and illnesses, local residents have seen their land polluted for generations, and my daughter came down with stage 3 ovarian cancer that was directly related to this mining operation. The reason why you release the manatees in Crystal River is because the sea grass population along with every other living thing in the water keeps dying off in the Tampa Bay and Port Charlotte area. The Alafia, Peace, Manatee, Myakka, and Hillsborough rivers are highly polluted because of this mining operation. Gypsum stack collapses and pollution related to ongoing operations at The Mosaic Company are the main cause of eco-system destruction in central Florida. Hurricanes and salt water only compound the problem. The power plant in your video, Big Bend Station is located right next to Mosaic's phosphate/uranium processing facility at the mouth of the Alafia River. The manatees gathering around Big Bend Station are swimming in radioactive pollution and other chemicals related to striping phosphate of uranium-238. #FloridaPoisonedMyDaughter, #MosaicCausesCancer, #SavetheManatees.
Thank you raising awareness 💯
When I lived on base we would ride to the water in the back of NAS JAX and play with the manatees
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Wondering if it can be grown in the everglades, then harvested for the rivers
I gave my mother in law a compliment that she was majestic like a manatee... ...she got mad thought I was trying to call her a sea cow 🙄
🎉
Lawns and farms.... you can suck up all the algae bit it will be back unless you get rid of the crap going into the waters