This year in Florida we've had several cold snaps and even have had frost a few times. This is not only hard on some plants, but it also can be life threatening to manatees. These marine mammals can weigh over 1000 lbs. and seek shelter out of the Gulf to waters that may be a few degrees warmer. One such location is Whitcomb Bayou in Tarpon Springs. People come to manatee watch from both land and water in kayaks and canoes- motorized craft is prohibited from November to April. The refuge has warmer water, but the food supply may be depleted quickly (they only eat plants), and this time it can be stressful on the animals; they move out to open waters as soon as possible.
The photo probably could not be used in the PSA Nature category as there was some manipulation of objects in the shot and color adjustments as you can see from the original.
As an aside I have included another photo of the Bayou that can sometimes make national news on the Greek Orthodox Church Day of Epiphany (January 6th). Teenage boys dive for a cross that is tossed into the water by the Priest. The Priest stands on the rectangular structure shown upper right in the Bayou.
4 comments posted
Lou McLove
Beautiful image Richard, I love the composition with the 3 boats framing the manatee. To my eye the exposure looks good, the color and exposure of the water is great, I think it makes a wonderful background. If you don't mind me asking, how far away from you was your drone when you took this? Posted: 04/04/2026 15:31:37
Richard Stauber
Thanks Lou. Home point was about 400 ft, I have a pu truck with hard cover over the bed with 4 pcs of white tape in the center and I use this for take off and landing. I don't park under trees or power lines :) Posted: 04/06/2026 13:01:34
Drema Swader
Fun picture. Good color processing. I think the composition would have been better if you had rotated to the right a little and centered the subjects. (I copied it into Photoshop to see how it looked, and it looked quite a lot better with the manatee angled at the center bottom). I would also remove the long dark shadow coming in from the bottom of the picture. Posted: 04/04/2026 19:04:37
Richard Stauber
Thanks Drema for the suggestion, I'll try the rotation. Posted: 04/06/2026 13:04:08
