I've personally swam with the manatee's at Crystal River (and purely by chance at a few other places) a couple of times (the last was at least 10 years ago though). It's really sad to see what this has become. When we did it, it was a wonderful experience, the Manatees swam up to us and nudged and bumped us repeatedly and would often bump into you and then roll over to have their bellies rubbed, the young ones seemed to especially enjoy this. It is an experience I tell of often when the subject comes up, but after seeing what it has become I will be sure to encourage people to be wary of the people who run these tours. Another thing that appears to be very different now is the size of the gr...

I've personally swam with the manatee's at Crystal River (and purely by chance at a few other places) a couple of times (the last was at least 10 years ago though). It's really sad to see what this has become. When we did it, it was a wonderful experience, the Manatees swam up to us and nudged and bumped us repeatedly and would often bump into you and then roll over to have their bellies rubbed, the young ones seemed to especially enjoy this. It is an experience I tell of often when the subject comes up, but after seeing what it has become I will be sure to encourage people to be wary of the people who run these tours. Another thing that appears to be very different now is the size of the groups. Back when I did it there were only 4-6 people per tour. They are beautiful and amazing animals to have contact with when it happens on their terms, this is very sad.