Three Sisters Springs closed to swimmers
and kayakers
400 of the marine mammals leave Gulf of Mexico to gather in river system
Oliver Milman in
New York
Thursday 11 February 2016 16.31 GMT
Last modified on Thursday 11 February
201617.11 GMT
A popular Florida wildlife
refuge has been closed to swimmers, thanks to an influx of hundreds of
manatees.
It’s estimated that as many has 400
manatees have crowded into the Three Sisters
Springs, a refuge about 65 miles north of Tampa Kings Bay
and Crystal River
The manatee invasion has caused the
closure of Three Sisters Springs throughout this week. A boardwalk in the
refuge is open for visitors to see the manatees but swimmers and kayakers have
been warned to stay away while the animals group together.
The manatee traffic jam has been caused
by low temperatures that have driven the animals from their foraging in the Gulf of Mexico . Frosty conditions in Crystal River
“It has been very cold lately and so a
lot of manatees have been hanging out in the springs,” Cynthia Moore, Three
Sisters Springs visitor experience coordinator, told the Guardian.
“Hunger
will drive them back out into the Gulf of Mexico
to feed but if they aren’t hungry they will hang out together to keep warm.
“They often do this when the weather is
cold. It’s quite a spectacle really, it’s one of the only places in the world
where you see so many manatees in one place.”
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