Where Veggie Tales Winter

---

Geo: 28.9433, -81.3398

They're called the gentle giants and when you see them glide through this crystal clear water you'll wish you'd coined that phrase--it's perfect.

I didn't even know what a Manatee was until Veggie Tales' Barbra Manatee got stuck in my head a couple years ago. The silly song made me curious and I couldn't wait to get up to Blue Springs to see their wintering ground. The guide said there were 400-500 of them between the springs area and the St. John's river it runs in to. The river's only about 58 degrees now, so the constant 73 degree spring water is a warm refuge for them and where they spend the colder months of winter. When things warm up again in the spring, they're gone.

They're huge and ugly and graceful and harmless. And endangered, as propeller blades from motorboats will often slash large gashes on their backs--sometimes causing death.

---

Photos

The Thursby House circa 1870
In 1856 Blue Spring was settled by Louis Thursby and his family. The Thursby house, built in 1872, remains standing.

Those Light Blotches? They're the Manatees
The waters of Blue Spring have no oxygen, so most fish cannot live here--only air breathers.

Mama & Baby
What weights over 1000 pounds, looks a bit like a walrus with wrinkled, gray-brown, spongy skin, is sometimes called a "sea cow", is related to an elephant, was mistaken for mermaids, can eat more than 100 pounds of vegetables per day, and travels an average of 3 to 5 miles per hour? Why the manatee, of course!

Head of Blue Spring
The spring is the largest in the state, discharging 104 million gallons of water daily into the St Johns River. This is the head and it looks like a lake!