Meet Manatee Mike, Protector of All Beings

All over Crystal River there are these mysterious cages protecting eel grass until it is mature enough to stand on its own. This is one of the primary food sources for manatee.

These are planted by the everyday protectors at “Sea and Shoreline,” a local restoration initiative that has been working with a community of residents from “Save Crystal River”. By July their goal is to have planted 93 acres of eel grass.

Mike fishing at the Kings Bay Park where he occasionally gets some fresh fish to cook up for the communities of abandoned cats that he cares for in Crystal River.

Mike is preparing a mixture for the 3rd or 4th group of cats that he feeds.

Tucked off on the side of the road in a hidden location is where Miss Maggie was living with Pearl. She has recently found a new loving home.

After going to five different locations we went back to one of the first abandoned house where my car was parked and to our surprise, three more kittens popped out of holes in the house and were playing in the yard enjoying the food that he brought out earlier.

I stood back while he walked up to her. I could feel tears forming in my eyes not yet know that she was one of the first cats he started feeding here over 8 years ago when his mom got sick and he was caring for her. He started calling her Pearl because she doesn’t meow or purr but makes a beautiful pearling sound that has left many wondering if she was raised by sandhill cranes. Maggie has recently passed.

Manatee Mike riding along the bike trail in Crystal River on his way back from feeding cats.

Just around the corner from Hunter Springs and from where the previous manatee moment occurred lies the remnants of eel grass. The grass is getting smothered out by the toxic Lyngbya Blue Green Algae. In addition to planting eel grass we need to stop over pumping water, over fertilizing etc. and so much more. All of our water in this part of Florida and up into the lower part of Georgia come from the Floridan Aquifer, this is the water that feed these springs and rivers.

This image was made just 15 feet from where the eel grass cages are by Hunter Springs. Notice how clear the water becomes and how happy the eel grass looks here. Photographed just about 1,000 feet from eel grass being smothered by the Lyngbya algae.

Fish swimming in Three Sisters Spring over algae covered rocks. A look into a spring before winter comes and this spring becomes filled with up to 500 manatee to keep warm in the 72 degree water when the river temperatures drop in winter.

A moment between a very sweet manatee calf and its mother feeding on the eel grass at the bottom of crystal river. This moment was created just 20 feet from the lyngba covered dying grass.

Manatees are named by the scars that they get from boats as you can see here the mom is missing a piece of her tail and the slightest movement stirs up all of the muck and dead algae on the bottom of Crystal River.

Shortly after slipping into the water this baby manatee swam straight up to me and put its face up to my face and the moment that I looked into its eyes I knew that I was in the right place doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. Then the unexpected happened it wrapped its fins around my arm and started chewing on me. Manatee are naturally very curious. We sat together here on the edge of a wasteland looking at each other. This little one followed me around until my hands became too cold to handle my camera. We had a moment here where the muck and Lyngbya meet the eel grass and I watched the last rays of sunlight move through the water creating rainbows everywhere and a piece of eel grass float in between us.

WORDS & IMAGES BY CHRISSY MARTINEZ

“I met Manatee Mike just a few weeks before he started chemotherapy. We immediately connected over the manatee. Mike grew up in Crystal River on one of the islands up until Duke Energy power plant took it over. He shared his concerns about the manatee and the way that people often chase and smother them.

In 2021 there were 1,100 manatee deaths in Florida coming in with the highest death count since they began tracking manatee deaths in 1974. We connected over how much the quality of water has changed over the years and how he is told to no longer eat the fish that come from this part of the river. He knew this place before all of the houses, the over-pumping, the excess nitrates from sewage systems and the agricultural run-off.

Today he splits his time between going into some of the springs and bays that the manatees live in and take refuge in during the winter, and spending his time caring for a community of abandoned cats.

I leave these spaces knowing there is much work to be done and feel like this little one was asking me and is asking all of us to show up and care for these waters. The rainbow and grass also leave me with a feeling of hope that if we show all show up as everyday protectors that things will get better.”

ABOUT THE STORYTELLER

“I am a Venezuela-born photographer who specializes in wildlife and nature photography on the ancestral lands of the Timucua, Miccosukee and Seminole Nations. I have lived here since I was 3 years old and have witnessed the springs transform from lushious dreamy underwater landscapes that I swam in as a child to to algae covered looking deserts. I have been working with Mike on this project since August of 2022. If you would like to support the work that Mike is doing the way that you can best support his passion is through donating $ for cat food below.”

This story is the recipient of a PWB Micro-Grant.