esquid;113318 said:
Not only is it against the law, no matter what your friend said, you are endangering the manatees you interacted with because you are conditioning them to trust humans and to return to an area that is very dangerous to them.
Obviously, we weren't expecting manatees to show up, and I can tell you it freaked me out, but when they did, they showed a lot of interest in the hose and loved to play in and drink the water as the pics show. We had just docked our boat and were cleaning it off with the hose, so it's not like we went over and got a hose just for this. If the manatees had come over when we did not have the hose, we never would have thought to get it. A lot of websites have information about manatees drinking fresh water: Id like to draw attention to the last sentence of the "Manatees migrate" section.
http://pelotes.jea.com/Manatee.htm, I was unaware of all the information on manatees until after this interaction.
In support of your argument, I found this website
http://www.homesafe.com/manatee/rules-of-the-road.html
I now know that this is a law, but, although it doesn't count for much, I'm going to argue against it. As Monty said, it would encourage manatees to hang out in places that they shouldn't, but wouldn't pleasant human interactions, which the law seems to support, do the same?
In support of this incident, the manatees were there already, and the place that they were wasn't a marina or anything, it was a quiet inland salt pond-like area with some houses and a channel on one side. The rest of it was covered in sea-grass, but was too shallow for boats. So I would guess this would be a prime location for manatees and what I did wasn't that harmful
in this incident however I will agree that it
could have been harmful in the middle of a marina.
There wer no signs that said that, and I do read them when I see them, because I find that they not only tell what
not to do, but they give information on the animal which I like to know. Also, I didn't give the water as something that was helpful or careing, but because the manatees liked it. I didn't find out untill after the fact that they needed fresh water. I am also aware of the harm boats can cause to them as one of my pics shows on one of the manatee's tail. I am more of a reptile person myself, so will draw my experience from that: every summer, I go to a research facility near savannah, GA that keeps track of loggerhead turtle activities. We often find turtles that have large chunks taken out of their shell or flippers from boats, among other things, so I am aware of the harm boats can cause to sea life.
I now know that what we did was unlawful even though I don't agree with the reasoning, so will never do it again. I find that many extreme environmentalists (which I am not necessarily "accusing" you of, I think many people, including myself can be accused of it in some subjects) take laws more seriously than they should be taken and are blinded to the "whole story". What happened on the dock with the manatees was an experience I had never dreamed of and one that happens to not so many people. I seriously doubt that such a privelage as to view such magnificent creatures in the wild will ever be bestowed on me again and I will forever remember it. I think that although what I did, although against my knowledge, was wrong, It should not
just be remembered as harm to the animal.