Day 7

On Tuesday, the 17^th, we started the day by all wearing our bright orange Alternative Break shirts.  We began our service by picking up trash along the upper and lower sections of the spring run and the trails in between.  We had the park as clean as a whistle.  Additionally, we paired up to survey random park visitors.  This allowed us to be readily available to help out on a big day for Blue Springs, as the park debuted their nifty live feed that is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.savethemanatee.org/livecams.

Later in the day, Sea World Rescue arrived at the scene to tag and release Choptail, a manatee, back to the wild.  The manatee was found in Jacksonville and showed signs of distress, as the water there was much too cold for a manatee this time of the year. Joshua and myself, two burly men, had the opportunity to help the cool cats of Sea World Rescue in lifting the manatee on a sling from the back of a truck to the edge of the spring run.  Upon its return to the water, the manatee was very active and made its way to the St. John’s River in Free Willy action, it was the cat’s pajamas.

Kyle and Josh