At the Big Bend Power Station in Apollo Beach, Florida, manatees have a winter holiday home.
The Big Bend power station at Apollo Beach, Florida
The Big Bend power station at Apollo Beach near Tampa is, even by power station standards, stonkingly ugly. It’s an industrial behemoth, all unprettified metal and billowing smoke. To drive three hours across Florida to see it is, at first glance, an absurd thing to do.
But completely by accident, this power station has become a bizarre wildlife refuge. Or at least the channel of water next to it, eventually leading into the Gulf of Mexico, has. The water used for cooling the power station is discharged into the channel, and upon entry it is considerably warmer than the water it joins.
The manatees of Apollo Beach
In 1986, shortly after Unit 4 of the power station opened, some surprise visitors started showing up. Manatees – the loveably docile creatures that look like cross-breeds between a dolphin and a hippo – are a reasonably common site around the Florida coast. But after the first few arrived, plenty of their friends came to join them.
This is not an unusual sight further up the coast, where hundreds of manatees a day can pour into waterways near hot springs. But it seems the manatees of the Gulf Coast have decided that power station discharge channels do the job just as well.
How manatees behave in winter
Manatees need warm water to survive, and when ocean temperatures drop below 20 degrees Celsius in the winter months, they scrabble around for somewhere to keep the chill at bay. During this period they morph from being fairly solitary animals to hanging around in packs. One day a local beauty spot can play host to a couple of kayakers, the next it will be closed because 300 manatees have barged in and are showing no intention of moving until the sun comes out for a sustained period.
The Manatee Viewing Center near Tampa
Gloriously, the channel outside the Big Bend power station has now been designated as a state and federal marine sanctuary. Boardwalks and viewing platforms have been built at the Manatee Viewing Center, while the relative lack of threat has seen plenty of other wildlife wander on in too. There are huge fish shoals darting back and forth, while tarpon, striped mullet, and tilapia weave between them. Play close attention and there are also stingrays and black-tipped sharks.
White ibis, brown pelicans, ospreys and great blue herons strut amongst the patchy mangroves. But try as they might, they don’t distract the attention from the dozens of grey blobs in the water.
The joy of observing manatees
It is impossible to gaze upon a manatee without being filled by warm, giddy joy. There’s something so gloriously plodding and ungraceful about them that is hard to dislike. Only a black-hearted serial killer could feel animosity towards a manatee.
Their closest relatives are the elephant, aardvark and the hyrax, yet they really don’t look like any of them. Whiskery faces pop out of the water occasionally, while backs flip out when breaching.
They seem to do very little indeed, other than flipping around every now and then, or nuzzling up to each other in a kiss-like position. Yet there are few creatures on earth that look more like they’d be up for a big cuddle.
Even with the furiously ugly backdrop, there’s something so powerfully comforting about big grey podgy blobs in the water that makes in it exceptionally difficult to tear yourself away. The ludicrousness of both the location and the beast brings on a sense of deep contentment – and one that’s unquestionably worth going three hours out of your way for.
Visiting the Manatee Viewing Center
The Manatee Viewing Center is in Apollo Beach, 17 miles south of Tampa. The drive takes around 25 minutes.
The Manatee Viewing Center opens at the start of November, but the manatee sightings are at their best between December and March.
More Florida travel tips
Other things to do in Tampa include the Florida Aquarium, food walking tours in historic Ybor City and sightseeing tours in street-legal golf carts.
If you’ve enjoyed this story on the power station manatees of Apollo Bay, other Florida stories on Planet Whitley include:
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