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Sea Cow Spa Draws Crowd

Tribune photo by ROBERT BURKE

Sea cows roll and splash in the 75-degree water of the discharge canal at TECO's Big Bend Power Plant Manatee Viewing Center.

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 4, 2008

APOLLO BEACH - The critters can come and go as they like, but Old Man Winter drove them in Thursday with tail-biting temperatures, transforming the warm-water canal at Big Bend Station into a kind of sea cow corral.

At least 100 manatees took refuge from the cold in the 30-acre sauna provided by discharge waters at Tampa Electric Co.'s largest power plant. By 10 a.m. opening time, human onlookers in jackets and gloves were flocking to the Manatee Viewing Center to take advantage of the best opportunity so far this season to see the animals outside a zoo or theme park.

Water that cools the power plant's huge coal-burning units poured into the canal, creating what TECO environmental specialist Wendy Valle Anastasiou called a "manatee spa."

Even at that, water temperatures in the canal were 75 degrees or lower Thursday morning. Outside the canal, in Hillsborough Bay, water temperatures registered an unfriendly 54 degrees, too chilly for manatees and their calves to tolerate for long.

The best opportunities for seeing the endangered marine mammals at Big Bend occur when water in the Gulf of Mexico is 68 degrees or lower, Anastasiou said.

Manatees are expected to continue flocking to the canal today and Saturday, she said.

At low tide Thursday, the backs of basking manatees broke the water surface in dozens of places, looking like big gray boulders. Playful manatee calves nuzzled each other or hugged the flanks of their mothers. Occasionally, a manatee snout would poke above the water surface or one of the creatures would dive deeper into the water, creating a swirl with its paddle-shaped tail.

"That's known as a footprint," Anastasiou said. "Sometimes they'll roll over on their backs and show you their chins."

The most manatees ever recorded in the canal numbered 345 on Feb. 2 last year, she said.

About 317,000 people visited the center last winter, Anastasiou said. Longtime TECO volunteers said they have had visitors from Australia, Japan, England, Scotland and Canada, as well as from all over the United States.

TECO recently expanded the center's parking lot to accommodate the increasing number of visitors. The center also includes a manatee museum, 900-foot pier overlooking a mangrove habitat, gift shop and refreshment kiosk.

The center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through April 15. Admission is free, but donations go toward improving the museum. For information, call (813) 228-4289 or visit www.tampaelectric.com/manatee/.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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