Hi, every one you can come out now. All or most of the snowbirds have gone home. The restaurants and shopping malls are empty. The cold weather is behind us and the waterways are like a sheet of glass. However the big blast of cold did have its impact on the fish and manatee population. They were not ready for the coldest cold snap in 28 years. We lost a lot of snook, brim, and catfish. However, the reds did well, one of my kayak-fishing clients snagged a 30 incher in the mangroves the other day, on shrimp. We have been seeing a lot of mid-sized snook. Don’t forget the season for them is closed. Maybe it wont be long before they get the stock numbers back up were we can go out and get a few fish

Unfortunately I have to let you know as of this writing we did lose 420 manatees, and I am afraid there will be more that won’t make it because of the shocking cold.

Skip and I were out with a large group on our sunset/full moon tour and we spotted a large manatee on the edge of the mangroves. I led the group away from the scene as Skip paddled over to check it out. Sad to say the manatee’s lifeless body was floating high up out of the water stuck in the roots of the red mangroves. The body did not look like it had any trauma or that it had been struck by anything. There are a few ways this could of happened to make it come to its demise.

One is red tide. They are mammals just like us and they breathe and need fresh air. Have you ever been at the beach when we have red tide???

You start to chock and can’t catch your breath. Can you imagine being noise deep in this stuff??

Next is structure death.

I am talking about dams, locks, and dredging barges. When the dam master closes the locks large walls of steel close to hold backwater. If the manatee doesn’t look out they can be caught between the lock doors as they close. When dredging barges are sucking up sand or working on sea walls the manatee get up under them and don’t move out when the tide changes and they are stuck and crushed under them. They have been working on this problem for some time now and seem to come up with something that works. They now have bells and vibrating alarms under water that sound off as the doors close and the barges sink in the low tide, in hopes the manatee will move on.

In addition, one other way is that motors from boats cut them up, and they die. No, no, no, this is not true. Even though you may think so, the props of a boat are only about 3 inches long. The manatee is fat and has a lot of meat on his back. Yes, you will see scares on their backs. But more than likely it will not kill him.

What will kill him is the boat smashing into him and breaking his ribs. If his ribs get broken they could puncture his lungs and then he will not be able to breathe or go down to the bottom and eat.

Last, but not least, cold.

They are Floridians, they don’t like the cold. That is why they come to Matlacha in November and stay until April. The back bay water that is shallow holds the heat. If it gets too cold they can’t take it and they stop eating and don’t move around much and eventually the cold will kill them.

That all said, get a pen and paper out and or cut this out here is a few telephone numbers you as a fellow kayaker may need some day.

Who do you call list?

Problem/Agency FWCC: 888-404 FWCC (3922)

Abandoned traps; Feeding wildlife; Litter-direct; Monofilament in quantity; Injured wildlife

Mote Marine: Karen Nierburg 941-338-4441, Algae blooms & fish kills

Problem agency: FDEP 1-800-320-0519, Illegal dumping; Litter-indirect; Oil and fuel spills; Seagrass scarring; Vessel grounding

Center for Aquatic and invasive plants: 352-392-1799, Invasive species; plants and animals

When you do report an item please have GPS markings or a good landmark, that the field officers can find the reported problem.

Well, we have to go now, we have another nature tour to go out on and it looks like another great day in Mat-La-Sha.

Gulf Coast Kayak 239-283-1125 or 941-661-8229 for tours.