Well I couldn't help sharing this little clip that I filmed while we were in Crystal River over the winter break. It was the first of two really cold days, there were not many people in the water and Manatees where everywhere.
Manatee showing off!
This guy(or gal?) wouldn't leave me alone or let me film him until he'd had a long hard scratch on his belly. I'm normally totally against touching marine animals in any way shape or form, but he followed me around like a puppy dog for about 30 mins constantly nudging me and pushing me around and whenever I was filming another Manatee he'd try and get between us and grab all the attention. A truly magical experience 
On a slightly different note I wouldn't want to disagree with Carol, but personally when I was there I didn't see any operator (including Birds) who 'stood out' from the crowd. They all seemed to be just milking the tourists for all they were worth, with little or no control over their groups and hence what appeared to be very little regard for the Manatees. I was genuinely surprised about Birds in particular as I'd heard so many good things about them over the years. Perhaps it was just the time of year, but I'd agree 100% on Carol's advice on avoiding the crowds if possible.
Cheers, Simon
Love the clip Simon!!
Yea, people who haven't been around curious manatee don't get that you actually cannot keep manatee observations to "no contact/no touch". If you don't touch them they will continually bump and rub on you which can of course be very distracting to the framing of your subject as a videographer or photographer! 
And again I've had manatee all over the state behave this way, even when I encountered them on scuba BTW...., so my feeling it that the natural close curiosity is their natural nature - when of course they are curious and not shy or sleeping, frightened, etc.
I'm glad the experience was "magical" for you Simon! You know I was traveling once in California and stopped in a popular dive shop in Santa Cruz and the owners wife heard where I lived and said that her husband (who has led dive trips all over the world), said that his experience of snorkeling with the manatee at CR was the single most profound wildlife encounter he has had in all his diving (and that is saying something).
Simon, I'm sorry if you perceived Birds to be less than you expected. I've known that family and their employees for years and found them to be extremely ethical and consciencious. Plus when Bill and Diane adopted two nine year old boys from Russia a couple of years ago I was even more impressed with their caring and ethical standards. But you can imagine with the operators and all the crowds - everyone must get frustrated with no controls in place, even though some have tried to work out crowd control measures (Bird's particularly). But I don't feel the operators are "milking" tourists in any way as if they didn't run manatee tours there would be that many, many more rented boats and "yahoos" who don't know what "idle" speed means, or what it means to cut your engine before approaching a sanctuary to not scare the manatee, how to anchor effectively, etc. The tour boats still are supervised much more than the private boats and rental boats.
In fact, get this. Yesterday I was there in the afternoon and I came out of the back of 3 sister's and saw two teenage girls splashing around right in the middle of the manatee sanctuary!!!!!!! I've never seen that before as it is posted all over and right next to the buoyed off area and it is a $20,000.00 fine!!!!!!!!!!!! So I saw this guy, anchored right next to the sanctuary (which is horrible in and of itself) and I told him what those girls were doing was illegal, that was a sanctuary, etc etc. And he said "I thought it was just closed to boats...." (Yea right, an intelligent looking guy with an expensive private boat can't read......). Anyway this just illustrates that while the tour boats might not be supervised during busy times as well as you would have liked or as well as they should be I agree - it is much better than no supervision of private boats and rental boats and "yahoos" who don't think the work "sanctuary" means anything........... (I'm pissed and also what kind of an example is he setting for those teenage girls - disregard for the law and ethical standards for the future? Plus it was so unnecessary because there were manatee around in other spots too.....).
So the upshot is I just hope we can salvage the manatee interactions at Crystal River as I've seen it time and time again, once up close and personal with manatee people end up crusading for them and being passionate about their plight (which is quite dire with all the boat traffic in Florida, etc.).
Also for everyone's info I was in the water yesterday afternoon with over 30 manatee and no one around for two hours. So quiet times are very possible with the manatee and it is a very profound and life-changing experience I must say - to observe them as they have been for thousands of years in the springs (minus the boat scars, etc. of course....). It is very much as my husband said about my photograph above they are there being "timeless".
Sincerely, Carol
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So maybe I won't have to be so "creative" with the 16mm close focus lock now...... I just want to wait till I get help to mount it the tokina, gear, etc - I hear help is coming? 
