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Oil Slick?

Today was beach day and, of course, it was a fun day, but something wonderful happened. We were out in the Gulf for the third time and just having fun without snorkels, goggles, or boogie boards. Nancy turned to me and then behind me and asked, "What's that?" I turned around and saw a large dark area undulating toward us. I stood still and let it approach. Nancy asked if it was an oil slick. We both stood there as it came even closer, to about 8 feet of me, and by that time I was thinking giant manta ray. No fins so it couldn't be a dolphin or shark, but damn that thing was too damn close so I started moving toward the shore. The slick or whatever it was then moved away from me and up came a round snout taking in air. Nancy yelled it was a manatee. It moved slowly toward some fishermen down at some rocks and pretty soon an arm went up and we heard "manatee...".

Didn't have the camera with me but sure wish I could have recorded the contact. I don't think this is a common sighting at Sunset beach so feel honored we were there and saw it.




Comments

  1. Neighbor TimAugust 22, 2009 at 1:09 PM

    Awesome.....what a rare sighting, yes count yourselves lucky. Years ago when visiting Venace Beach near Sarasota, we paid for a tour to see dolphins and manatees, seen dolpins, but no manatees?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 22, 2009 at 9:02 PM

    Beaches, beach bunnies, manatees, whatever. Nice life. If you only knew what I did today you'd be like, soooo jealous...like, cryin' to come back here and doin' all the way cool stuff I did today. Like, I even drank some beer, so take that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. KenzieAugust 22, 2009 at 10:06 PM

    im so jealous!!! Ive been here 2 years and I havent seen one :( only a shark fin.... but id take a manatee anyday :) Maybe tomorrow??

    ReplyDelete

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