HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — On a summer afternoon, Lucas Johns dialed back his boat’s engine and idled through the calm, dark water of the Mud River. No manatees surfaced, though they could easily have been gliding just beneath the water’s surface, hidden from view.
That possibility is a constant concern for Johns, who has seen firsthand how quickly a peaceful stretch of river can become dangerous for the area’s most famous aquatic inhabitants.
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“I’ve hit a manatee,” he said. “I hate to admit it, but yeah, I hit one in that little stretch of river where we showed you. I hit him at low speed. I saw him immediately. I shut the motor off and trimmed up.”
Johns said the Mud River, which links the Gulf with the famed Weeki Wachee River, has changed dramatically in recent years.
“The local demographic has changed. It’s no longer, you know, people that are raising their families on the water. It’s weekend warriors,” he said. “We have had an explosion of boats.”
And Dennis Braun, who joined Johns on the afternoon boat ride, said many boaters travel at high rates of speed down the narrow, shallow river.
“We have a lot of people flying through waters that they have no business flying through,” he said.
But it’s not just the boats that have increased on the Mud River. Residents are seeing more manatees too, and that trend is expected to continue.
Hernando County leaders believe more manatees will seek out the warmth and shelter of the Mud and Weeki Wachee Rivers, especially during colder months, as power plants phase out warm-water discharges over the coming decades.
For Stephanie Kozuch, the increase in boat traffic and the manatee population presents a possibility for more boat strikes, which the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) says is “a leading human-related threat” to manatees.
“If there are no manatees here, the county will not receive tourism income,” Kozuch said. “The crown jewel of the county needs to be protected.”
Inside the debate
Hours before Johns’ boat ride, Hernando County commissioners considered a plan to create a year-round Manatee Protection Zone on the Mud River. The measure would create “slow speed, minimum wake zones” on portions of the river that are not already speed-limited.
During the commission meeting, the proposal quickly divided the room.
Supporters like Kozuch said it was long overdue.
“It’s not only for the manatee. It’s also a safety issue at this point,” she told commissioners.
But opponents argued the measure went too far.
“We don’t want our way of life changed as boaters,” said one homeowner, who lives along the river.
“We had some manatee deaths last year, and there’s pressure to do something. This is not the something to do,” added another riverfront homeowner, Frank Danielson.
Trista Ellis, another homeowner, also voiced concern about losing rights permanently.
“None of the neighbors are saying, ‘Oh, we want to kill all the manatees.’ We just want our rights to stay the same, because once they’re gone, they don’t come back, or we have to fight harder for them,” she said.
Commissioners themselves were also split.
Commissioner Steve Champion was outspokenly against the Manatee Protection Zone.
“Once you lose your rights, you lose ’em forever,” he said. “I associate this with similar to taking rights away for your gun rights, etc. You know, when you take them away, and you don’t have data to back it up, it’s communism.”
Manatee advocates, though, urged commissioners not to wait for tragedy.
“Boat collisions are historically the primary cause of manatee deaths throughout Florida,” said Taylor Masnjak. “A jaw-dropping 96% of manatees have evidence of a vessel strike.”
Masnjak is the co-owner of Get Up and Go Kayaking Weeki Wachee, an eco-tourism operation that guides visitors on both the Mud and Weeki Wachee Rivers.
In March 2023, Masnjak was flying a drone over the Mud River when she captured video of a boater barreling through a group of roughly 20 manatees.
“I couldn’t tell if a manatee was struck or injured in that encounter,” Masnjak said in a Jan. 2024 interview.
Whether they were injured or not, she believes the area’s manatees are under an increasing threat.
Looking ahead
In the end, commissioners declined to approve or reject the Manatee Protection Zone outright.
Instead, they decided to survey riverfront homeowners before making any decision. No timeline has been set.
Back on the river, Johns voiced his support for a compromise steeped in common sense.
“While I don’t want to lose any rights, and I don’t want to lose any water access, I understand the argument for it,” he said.
He believes the Mud River, or at least a portion of it, could have lower speeds seasonally.
He hopes the solution will strike a balance, protecting manatees while still allowing people to safely enjoy the river.
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