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BETH N. GRAYAs the new Aqua Eco Camp catches on, the county Recreation Department considers more specialty camps for kids next year.
CRYSTAL RIVER - On the third dive, Tyler Starke and Connor Garvey were first off the boat, fanning out in the parachute-float position, masked faces down, gentle with the fin action.
Suddenly, Starke's face popped out of the water with a grin so wide the 10-year-old Spring Hill resident nearly disgorged her snorkel.
Manatee in the water!
"I think he was eating," Starke said later. "I heard some breathing and I looked down and saw it."
Garvey, 11, also of Spring Hill, seemed to overflow with surprise and enthusiasm.
"It looked like a rock, but then I saw bubbles coming from it," she said.
"Did you see the white mark on it? Like a gash right here across its back?" asked Starke, pointing to her own back.
Garvey nodded knowingly. Before they dived into the water, campers had learned from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service video that manatees, "gentle giants of the sea," are highly vulnerable to boat propeller slashings.
The girls were among 24 youngsters learning while having fun - the aim of weeklong Aqua Eco Camp, a new initiative of the Hernando County Recreation Department.
Last year, the department staged a one-week Wildlife Eco Camp for the first time. That was a departure from its usual Camp FunShine, during which kids traditionally went roller-skating and bowling and visited a museum and a zoo.
As a result of the response to Aqua Eco Camp, county recreation manager Harry Johnson says as many as seven-to-eight weeks of specialty camps are possible next summer. Also being considered are two sessions each of Wildlife Eco Camp and Aqua Camp, one or two Bike Week and Canoe camps and one Camping and Outdoor Adventure Camp.
So much interest was expressed in this year's programs that offerings may be designed for the 7- to 9-year-old set, not just the 9- to 14-year-olds, said recreation supervisor Linda Christian, who came up with the idea for Aqua Eco Camp. New curriculums would have to be tailored to younger levels of educational ability and physical stamina, Christian noted.
On Wednesday, the camp site was on the Crystal River, around Magnolia Shores and Three Sisters Springs. Capt. Ed Knauss of Crystal River Manatee Dive & Tour lectured campers on how to interact with manatees, snorkeling, even pulling on body-cinching wet suits.
"I feel like I'm stuck," grunted Austin Stratton, 9, of Brooksville, as he struggled to raise the suit's elastic casing.
Although the manatee snorkeling sites were in 80-degree water, Knauss explained that water takes away body heat three times as quickly as air does.
"You can get chilled after one hour," he told the group.
Knauss ordered swimmers to stay on the surface. Diving after manatees, disturbing their river-floor feeding or harassing them in any way is illegal, he said.
"We don't want to hurt the manatees," he cautioned.
As Knauss pointed out the first manatee sighting, youngsters in the pontoon boat scrambled for fins and attempted to follow the captain's instructions.
"No. 1, I want you to be very quiet," he said.
But that wasn't easy for a boatload of eager youths.
By the time Arielle Friedman, 11, finned to the swirl in the water, those ahead of her had splashed their fins, alarming the sea cow. More likely, said Knauss, the manatee simply wasn't in the mood to interact with humans - which the sea mammals do enjoy, especially having their bellies and backs scratched.
"That was a lot funner than I thought it was going to be, even though we didn't see anything," said Friedman, toweling her face back on the boat. "This is my first time diving."
Friedman, from Seattle, Wash., gained a spot in the camp because her grandmother was one of the first to respond to the Recreation Department offering, anticipating her granddaughter's visit to Spring Hill this summer.
The camp filled up in two days when registrations were offered in April, said Christian, an expert diver and environmentalist.
The cost was $100 for five days of aqua activities, including an overnight Thursday at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. The individual enrollment fee was offset by donations from Progress Energy Florida and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
Other activities during the week included a visit to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium with hands-on activities with injured marine life, all-day canoeing on the Halls and Homosassa rivers to watch birds and other wildlife. Participants also heard how the Hernando County Health Department checks local water supplies for pollutants, learned about the county's water resources and followed a tour guide through the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary at Indian Shores.
"It's not for the weak of heart," Christian said of the action-packed and sometimes physically strenuous program. "Don't worry about getting muddy, mucky, boggy, (finding) a few extra critters in the canoe," she had told the campers.
Ten-year-old Jade Blair of Spring Hill seemed as if she wanted to touch the manatee.
"I could have touched it, but I didn't," she said with a grimace. "It sort of swam by me. It had algae on it."
Not all campers felt the same way about manatees, however. Chris Feola, 11, of Spring Hill, said he wasn't scared as the boat approached the jumping-off destination for possible manatee sightings, but he held back as others took the plunge.
Likewise, Ben Buttleman, 12, of Brooksvilleinsisted that he loved to snorkel "but maybe not today."
Later,as the boat pulled next to Three Sisters Springs, where the water was crystal clear compared withthe murky manatee habitat, Feola and Buttleman had no qualms about jumping into the 71- to 72-degree oh-that's-coldwater.
Minutes later, as he returned to the boat, Feola emerged with a story of his own aquatic encounter.
"I stepped on a crab,and it snapped the side of my foot - right here," he said with a grin.
Residents interested in planning for the camps may contact Johnson or Christian at 754-4031.