Blue Spring Season Summary 2001-2002 Ranger Wayne That's it from Blue Spring. The 01-02' Manatee season is complete. The season ran from 16 November 01 to 12 March 02. Ranger Wayne's Manatee Research Journal The Manatees of Blue Spring established a day of arrival on 16 November 2001. We knew they were making a mistake but we couldnít tell them. Four days after arriving, the count was zero and summer had returned with 88 degree temperatures. The river had dropped to the magic number of 68. In that November time frame, we saw about thirty different Manatees but it would be a month before we would see any more. On 21 December they began to come back in. We had eight at first, then over nineteen, and on 23 December at least thirty-four! By February 7, we had seen a total of 133 Manatees compared to the record 153 last season. I think this was due to the odd way winter came in. The Manatees were probably on the way to Blue Spring when the weather got warm and they forgot the program and wandered off. Mother and Calf Photo Credit: FWC By season's end, there had been 141 separate Manatees seen. We never did reach last year's 153 Manatees. We counted 119 Manatees as staying the winter here, which is down from 120 last year. But at one point, we had a morning count of 97 Manatees which beat the high of 96 last season. During the season there were 7 calves this year, (down from 12 last season). 2 of the calves were orphans, and we did half 1 dead calf too. But 1 of the orphans was later adopted by the dead calf's mother. WAYNE C. HARTLEY PARK RANGER Blue Spring State Park Copyright 2002 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form