Gentle giants

Staff · Issue 28, Jan/Feb 2006 · pp. 28–32

It’s a wintry, bone-chilling day just before dawn; our warm breath is as thick as the early morning fog on the cold air. We quietly slip into our wetsuits, don our masks and fins. Just then two large snouts appear from beneath the water surface and quickly disappear. Cautiously we abandon our small rental boat and enter the water with camera in hand. Below the surface, we are surrounded by gigantic creatures as big as 3 meters (10 ft.) and weighing 454 to 1,600 kg (about 1,000 to 3,500 lbs). Cautious curiosity brings these giants close to us. I slowly reach out my hand, touching their thick, rough skin noticing the flat paddle-shaped tail and small black eyes. Is this the famous legends told by sailors reporting seeing half-fish and half woman resting on rocks and cruising the river ways? In reality those sailors probably saw manatees. Mantees are forever linked to the Greek myth of wome…