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Beautiful close encounter with manatees seeking refuge in Florida.

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A diver slips into 72-degree spring water and finds himself surrounded by the gentlest giants in the Gulf.

On November 27, 2019, underwater videographer Bartolomeo Bove dropped into the clear, spring-fed waters of Crystal River and Kings Bay, Florida, and came up with footage that’s since traveled far beyond the small stretch of coastline where it was shot. Distributed via Newsflare under the title “Beautiful close encounter with manatees seeking refuge in Florida,” the clip shows Florida manatees gliding past the camera at close range, unbothered by the human floating quietly among them. It’s a rare, unfiltered look at a threatened species doing exactly what it’s supposed to do in exactly the place it’s supposed to do it.

• Bartolomeo Bove filmed the footage on November 27, 2019, in Crystal River and Kings Bay, Florida.
• Florida manatees migrate inland each winter, between November and March, when coastal Gulf water drops below 68°F and risks cold stress or fatal hypothermia.
• Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1983 and run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is the only federal refuge created specifically to protect Florida manatee habitat.

Winter Migration Patterns in Crystal River

The Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris, is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee and carries threatened status under the Endangered Species Act. Through the warm months it ranges widely across the Gulf of Mexico coast and up the Atlantic seaboard as far north as New Jersey, browsing on seagrass with no real predators to worry about. The problem is insulation: manatees carry almost no blubber, so once coastal water dips below 68°F they’re in real danger of cold stress that can kill them outright.

That’s what sends hundreds of them inland every winter to Kings Bay and Three Sisters Springs, where geothermal springs hold a rock-steady 72°F year-round regardless of what’s happening outside. It’s the same math that drives the seasonal wildlife movements documented in places like a lion forced out of its pride — survival dictates where an animal goes, not preference.

Evidence Revealed by Current Footage

Bove’s video isn’t a distant, grainy wildlife shot — it’s close, steady, and clear enough to see individual manatees drifting through the springs at arm’s length from the camera. That kind of proximity is only possible because of how Crystal River is managed: federal and state guidelines require “passive observation” from anyone in the water, meaning no chasing, no touching, no feeding, and no disturbing a resting animal. Snorkelers and divers are allowed into designated public waters, but the manatees decide how close they get.

Kings Bay and Three Sisters Springs hold steady at roughly 72°F year-round — an 8-to-10-degree cushion that can mean the difference between a manatee surviving winter and not.

A Refuge Built for One Purpose

Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge was founded in 1983 and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It remains the only federal refuge in the country established specifically to protect Florida manatee habitat, which is why the bay operates under stricter rules than a typical stretch of public water — sanctuary zones are off-limits during peak cold months, and the passive-observation standard applies to everyone who enters. It’s a similar conservation logic to what’s kept other fragile marine populations intact, the kind covered in pieces like DAY 85: Sharks Really Wanted This Fish!, where human behavior in the water directly determines how an animal responds to it.

Bove’s footage lands right in the thick of that season. Late November through March is when the bay fills up, and by the numbers Fish and Wildlife has tracked in past winters, hundreds of manatees can be counted in Kings Bay on a single cold morning — proof that the refuge is doing what it was built to do back in 1983.