I welcome having guest and exploring Florida with them. Wednesday, a life-long friend from Massachusetts and I visited the Tampa Electric’s Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach. The cool weather attracts manatees and other fish to the warm water in the discharge canal, which was designated an official state manatee sanctuary in 1986.
I’ve been seeing the cooling towers of the coal-fired power plant from the highway for years, but had never visited the Big Bend Power Station. It is located on 1500 acres near Apollo Beach.
Walking from the parking lot, we saw the sixteen solar “trees” and the panels atop of the Manatee Education Center building that produce 43,800-watts, enough energy to power 10 to 20 homes, depending on how energy efficient they were. Unfortunately, this is Tampa Electric’s largest installation of photovoltaic arrays. After seeing extremely large solar panel setups in Europe, I found these disappointing, nothing more than a token effort to supplying green energy.
As soon as we walked onto the viewing platform, we saw hundreds of manatees. There was a sea cow with her calf and I learned that a young manatee will nurse for one to two years. I guess calves don’t need to breathe to suckle, because they nurse underwater from teats located behind the mother’s flippers. They begin to eat plants a few weeks after birth.
Manatees are herbivores and consume about 4 to 9% of their body weight daily and require a source of fresh water for drinking. I was surprised to see signs not to feed or water the manatees; I never thought that a salt water animal would need a supply of fresh water.
Most of the manatees have scars and damaged flippers. These injuries result from collision with boats, boat propellers, and entanglements in fishing nets. Even though the manatees are an endangered specie, many boaters would like them declassified to “threathened” so they can encroach on the manatees’ habitats. I think this would be a shame.
In addition to manatees, the warm waters attract other fish, such as mullet, snook, tarpin, sting rays, and shark. We saw fish chases and jumping fish.
The Manatee Viewing Center education building provided information on the manatees, the mangrove habitat, other wildlife found in the estuary, and the TECO plant itself. The docents were well-informed to answer questions and provide learning experiences for groups of children.
After leaving the viewing platform we strolled along the nature trail that followed the canal and onto the break wall. We saw the mangroves and other flora, and a variety of birds. It was a beautiful day to explore this environment.
I highly recommend others to visit Tampa Electric’s Manatee Viewing Center. It is worth the drive.
