Hi, folks! Mel the kayak guide, here. For those of you who are reading this for the first time, I have the hard job of taking folks out kayaking and looking for manatees and dolphin in the back bays of Matlacha and Pine Island in southwest Florida. Now, I know you are saying, “Hard work? You have got to be kidding me. I mean, how hard is it to go out on a sunny day and look for dolphin?” Well, first, not every day is a nice sunny day. Some days it rains, or we have 20 mile-an-hour winds and 3-foot waves. One good thing is not every day is the same, some are better than others. Like a little ways back I had a tour with a father and daughter in from Maryland. The day started like any other day: Up before the sunrise, put on the hot water for some tea, check the e-mail on the laptop, answer any questions as to when we go on tour, and how much is it to rent a kayak?

Book the up-and-coming reservations, and then some breakfast. I live about 45 minutes away from Matlacha in Punta Gorda. When I get there I have to set up the kayaks we will be using for the tours. Some folks like a single and others like to go in a double. Ron and his daughter had called a few days before to book the tour so we could go out and see some manatees. We launched at 9am, on time, and were off to the deeper water to find mammals. We lucked out right away and found some dolphin in the small canals in Matlacha. We then went to look for some birds back in the Indian fields. Now most of the time this a no-brainer — go to where the birds like to gather and eat. On most days you can find them without a problem. However, this was not like most days. It was winter; no, it’s not going to snow, but we have what I call winter water.

The water empties out of the back bay and you only have a few inches of water to get around. And some times you don’t even have that. Saying that, let me pass on to you a few hints about skinny water. Number one, if you can see the tops of crab traps or you can see birds walking, it more than likely is too darn shallow, unless the bird has 4-foot long legs. Now I am thinking: Mother Nature why did you have to drop a bag of lemons on my tour, and make it go sour; things were going great, until we ran out of water. So, what to do NOW? Well, this is when having been a guide for quite a few years pays off. When Mother Nature gives you lemons you grab hold and squeeze and make lemonade. What I mean is you make the best of the situation. You start to look in the few inches of water, and see what you don’t see when the water is four feet deep. You start to see things that on most days you just paddle over. Like what are those big balls of what looks like mucus with dirt all over it? They’re all over the sea floor, big gooey masses. Well, they are egg casings of a form of tubeworm. The dots on the mass are the eggs.

You may start to notice different kinds of grasses — thick blade grass which is the turtle grass; or a thin blade grass, the manatee grass or shoal grass. We have about eleven different kinds in our back bays. And how about crabs? Blue crab, or fiddler (that’s the one with the big claw), then the tiny little spider crabs. As you make your way forward you go aground. This is not good; try to stay afloat, but don’t give up — there is still so much to discover. Back up, you came in this way you should be able to float back out. You look down and think: Look at all this trash; don’t you think someone would be more careful where they throw their gaskets from boats. On a closer look you see that it is not a gasket from a motor; it is, in fact, an egg casing. The casing of a moon snail. The moon snail is the one that looks like an eyeball; this snail is so big he can’t fit all the way in to his shell. This snail is hungry all the time and eats all day long. He loves to eat clams and other snails. Now, I know, you are saying, “A snail eats clams; how can this be?” Well, he licks the clam with his radular tongue and can bore a small hole in the clam in about three minutes. You may have seen the work of the moon snail in your collection of seashells; they look like someone drilled a nice neat small hole in them. This snail’s egg casings are unique because of the unusual shape. They look like a gasket or doorknob ring. They are made of mucus and sand and look round, like a collar; that is made with his foot.

The eggs go through several larval stages while attached to the collar; they then hatch out to be small tiny moon snails. One other shell you may be lucky to see is the king crown conch. It is brown or gray with streaks of white. It has a bunch of pointed spikes all around its shoulder at the end of its crown. In addition, you may see a whelk. Most of the whelks I see are the lighting whelks. If you do see the whelks and conch you are to sure to see their egg casing. It looks like a spine or a bunch of vertebra all together; inside each one of these little disks is a single whelk or conk the size of a pencil point. I hope this makes you stop and look the next time you are out there in only a few inches of water. There is so much to see and learn about our beautiful back bay. Well, thanks for paddling with Mel, the guide; maybe we will see you at the next low tide, finding a whole new world. Gulf Coast Kayak is open all year 24/7 941 661 8229 239 283 1125 for rentals or to book a tour with Mel the Guide gulfcoastkayak@msn.com