I was doing chores on the boat last weekend, sweating my ass off in the midday heat chasing down a short in the bilge pump circuit, when an odd, recurring "phoosh" led me up on deck to investigate. In the water, a few feet from Moon, a momma manatee and two calves were making circles around the dock. She looked at me for a moment, measuring the threat that I might pose to her kids, I suppose, and then went back to her lazy loops between the boats.
I went back down below and grabbed the video camera and got a few minutes of her nursing the kids while what might have been daddy manatee drifted nearby. The folks that live in the marina said they hadn't seen her for several weeks, and had assumed she and the babies had moved out of the sound and into the Atlantic.
This momma probably weighs close to a thousand pounds, nearly as much as a full grown grizzly bear, but she and the rest of the manatee clan are quiet and peaceful creatures. They exude an innocence and calm that can be quite tranquilizing, and I spent an hour or so hanging out on the dock watching them paddle around the lagoon. I sprayed some water from the hose for them, and after drinking their fill they headed out toward the sound.
It won't be long before the water here warms up to the point that she'll want to head out looking for cooler places, leading the family through the sound and out into the open water where she'll need to decide whether to head north around the island and into Biscayne Bay or south to the cut at Tavernier Key that leads into Florida Bay and the gulf........
Satellite photos of the Gulf show the slick smearing farther by the day from the location of the leak, and it's only a matter of time before the loop current picks up the oil and sends it toward the Keys. I've read that the oil could reach the Keys by mid-June, and if the flow from the leak doesn't get stopped soon there could be enough oil to cover the seagrass beds and mangroves that are the feeding grounds for manatees like these, as well as all of the birds, fish, turtles, crabs, lobsters, eels, and corals that make the Keys the paradise that it is.
There is certain irony to the fact that this accident happened right before Earth Day, isn't there?
And tomorrow is Mother's day.
A day that we set aside to honor, pamper, and cater to Mothers, whether they are our own or not. I am blessed to have had a kind, smart, funny, and caring mother, and I am certain that most of the good qualities I posess as a person today are due mostly to her good genes and better example. I miss her tremendously, but I feel her presence often......
I'm also lucky to know some amazing, strong women who are exceptional mothers to their own children, and the world is a better place for their presence in it.
There's a sad parallel between Earth Day and Mother's Day, isn't there?....we set aside a day for honor and respect, but too often go back to our normal habits and ignore or forget all of the reasons those special days were created in the first place.
I hope everyone has a happy Mother's Day, including you, momma manatee.
And I hope that we all can remember to make every day Mother's Day, and Earth Day, because they both deserve it, and so do we.....
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