Complete Video - Diving Blue Springs, Manatee & Cave

[ricki]

We went to Orlando for Surf Expo on Saturday (Jan. 8, 2011), and decided among other stops to drive up to Blue Springs. It is about two hours round trip, no diving is allowed this time of year either. They stop going in the water around November 15 each year out of consideration for the manatee that winter here. The thing that lured me up was a vision of over 200 manatees stacked up like sausage links around the source area of the spring. I thought it would make for some nice shots. They had reported seeing about 240 manatee that morning in the spring.


The river, water levels were lower than the last time we were up. Also, there were a ton of those black sailfin catfish. They were were finger length in September, now they are whoppers. Take a good look at this image, there is something lurking here that I'll come back to in a while.



So we arrive, see a solitary manatee swimming along and think, oh no! If I had looked into things more careful, I would have expected that the manatee might head out in the warmer daytime hours to forage in the connected St. Johns River. The head back to the source around sunset and hang out there until morning I understand. Extended exposure to water 60 F or cooler can kill manatees. The springs water is a steamy 72 F year round. Cool in the summer but just the ticket for wintering sea cows. The air temp had dropped over night to 38 F in a cold front and this has been a cold winter. The springs are the only thing that help the manatee to survive aside from the odd power plant cooling canal.



Later on and moving away from the source towards the St. Johns we saw congregations of manatees along the opposing bank. The sea cows are those vague gray blobby things near the surface.



One kept turning over and scratching its back on the bottom. There is a mom manatee, her calf and soon to be annoying stick in the upper right of the frame.



Manatees are air breathers as this guy demonstrates while looking around.



This mom manatee was patiently dealing with a calf poking her with a stick for quite a while. Eventually the mom took it away using her teeth and sent the stick adrift downstream. No video games for manatees.



This is what was lurking near the top left of the first photo. Anyone see Pogo?


A more recent video from 2018 showing an alligator swimming among the manatee.
https://www.facebook.com/BlueSpringS...7168062357620/



So, didn't encounter over 200 manatee all bunched up but perhaps 20 or so. It was still interesting, see you guys next time!


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[ricki]

Went back to the spring on April 28, 2012 to test some GoPro camera gear. I shot some other images along the way with the GoPro HD2 camera in an EOM housing mounted on a Quikpod monopod. I did two drops with the monopod, one with the camera in video mode and the other in still. I did the same thing in lateral dive into a dead end side cave to the vertical shaft of the primary cave.












Here is a short video clip of another free diving drop done with the GoPro in video mode.








\
At the turning point to ascend




It is getting a bit lighter as I move up. The limestone rings make me think I am passing up through some giant's throat.




There were SCUBA divers beneath me at points, rising through a curtain of exhaust bubbles.



Here is a short video clip swimming into one of the side dead end caves using artificial light, a Sartek movie light.




Easing out of the narrow confines into the final stretch.



The sky is in sight.



Here is a sketched section of the cave at the source of Blue Spring:


From: http://www.floridacaves.com/bluespringsstatepark.html




See you from Blue Spring


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[nomorebikinis]

These pics ....no words other than intriguiing, inspiring.
From a personal point of view i miss the photographer when i see most gopro pics. These ones have tension, make me curious
Thnx for sharing
Continue with experimenting !

[ricki]

Thank you! When I free dive in confined environments, I feel relaxed, not tense fortunately. It is interesting that comes out in the images. It seems to come on automatically in caverns, some wrecks, etc.. If things go wrong, then there can be plenty of tension of course! Lots more things to try in imaging, just scratching the surface at this point. Good diving!