Living Dangerously

The Manatees, or “sea cows”, as slow-moving and friendly as they are, have some real challenges just surviving in the wild. One of the most serious threat is the motor boat. More specifically, being hit by the propeller of a boat. When photographing the manatees recently, I observed several that had encountered obvious run-ins with propellers:

Manatee with propeller marks

Manatee with propeller marks

Manatee with propeller marks

The fish and wildlife people of Florida are working hard at protecting the manatee, using “no boating zones”, boating education, etc. But these gently giants still get hurt, or even killed, by boats.

Sorry, no photo info available at time of post publishing … traveling home now, but will add that info a bit later. One thing I tried this time, and it seemed to work rather well, was to use a circular polarizing filter so that I could see the manatees a bit better while they were near the surface, but under the water.

 

 

Posted in Mammals, Nature Photography, Travel Photography
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