Clearwater Beach and Crystal River

Wrapping up a week down in the Tampa area. Made a stop up at the crystal river and found a few manatees including this mother and calf. These were very docile animals, feeding on vegetation and occassionally coming up for a breath. The water in the channel was low visability with a lot of particulate in the water column especially with other excited divers around. There was also a bit of current so I had to position myself upstream numerous times, make a drift and hope they would rise for air when I was nearby. It took awhile but eventually all the others on the trip with me headed back to the boat for hot coffee leaving just me with the animals. On my second pass, up they came.

The calf was busy feeding but seemed inquisitive towards the group snapping photos of him. Notice the dive guide in this photo capturing video for DVD burning. The mother of junior here is just below and beyond. If you wonder what the dark shape is on the bottom that is her feeding along contently.

After a brief warm-up, we swam up into three sisters spring and had some excellent over under opportunities that I wanted to work on with the new dome port. (Olympus OMD-EM5, Nauticam Housing, 4" Dome Port, Panasonic 8mm Fisheye lens, ambient light) 



Back in Clearwater, I spent most evenings on the beach and found quite a few shore birds around actively feeding on the edge of the surf.



Photographer:

Jason C. Sawicki   Copyright 2012

www.underwateroutdoors.com