Following up on the previous post, I have two more photos to show you from our dinner cruise on Jacksonville's beautiful, wide St. John's River. At one point, three dolphins greeted us, playing all around the boat as we enjoyed their company. I wish I had a better picture of them. Although I did my best to capture an image, snapping away as they circled and leapt, many of my photos are of ripples where there had been dolphins a second before. Oh well, with or without boast-worthy pictures, I will not forget the experience. We were awed and privileged to be near these sleek, intelligent animals. They seemed to be riding the rising tide of the salt water sweeping into the river, a twice-daily flow that enriches the variety of marine life we see in the river. Even where we dock our sailboat, about 14 miles from the mouth of this mighty river, the water is brackish enough to support many salt water creatures from small crabs to those gentle giant sea mammals, manatees.The other photo is a contrast to the rich marine life in the river and shows a ship in port--just one glimpse of the heavy shipping Jacksonville's active port supports. The graceful bridge in the background is called the Dames Point Bridge--one of our favorites among the many river crossings. Reviewing my photos from that evening, I realized again how much I enjoy living in this area. I love the varied natural habitats and extensive nature preserves in our forests, meadows, salt marshes, and ocean coastal areas. However, I am also a city kid through and through. Growing up just north of industrial Muskegon, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan, I loved to watch the activity at the commercial docks. Once the St. Lawrence Seaway opened the lake to international shipping, the loading and unloading of ships, the transfer of goods to trucks and trains, and other dockside activities increased exponentially. Yet, there too, we were near gorgeous natural habitats and preserves and enjoyed the best of both worlds, in my view.
Question of the day: No particular question comes to mind--just the thought that we are very fortunate in our home area and all the places we have lived. I hope you find beauty and fascination all around, as well.
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I was thinking exactly as you concluded with your question of the day, Mary. Beautiful photos. For some reason, the thoughts of predators on some of that beautiful sea life had me fretting a bit... Not sure why as it is a way of life and it must happen...but the thought of losing a dolphin or a seal or a sea lion or a manatee...anything really, just niggles at me.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your musings, Sherry. As you may guess, the greatest threat to any of these amazing animals is human activity. The dolphins are very agile, but manatees move slowly and are sometimes injured by boaters going too fast to allow the animals to dive or dodge away. Consequently, we have posted low speed zones where the animals are most likely to be hanging out (near our sail boat dock is one such zone). I agree with you--any death is sad, but to lose one of the noble sea mammals seems an especially grievous loss. My impression is that most people in this area respect and are careful of the lives and habitats of sea creatures.
ReplyDeleteSo good to know, at least, Mary. I am incensed that boaters would be so careless as to not give the manatees time to dive away. I was actually more thinking on the natural order of things and how tenuous life really is.
ReplyDeleteFantastic cruise by the sounds and looks of it Mary. I love the post on the creative office space too.
ReplyDeleteHi again, Sherry. Yes, I know you had natural predators in mind or perhaps even the illnesses that can infect these magnificent animals. We do tend to pick favorites along the food chain, don't we? I know I do, and dolphins, manatees, and other marine mammals would be very high on the list.
ReplyDeleteSuper to hear from you, Joan. Yes the cruise was delightful; I'm glad I had a camera along. Sometimes I leave it at home, preferring to focus completely on the experience. But this time, I am really enjoying reliving that evening via the photos.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words on a previous post. I'm glad you liked it and appreciate you taking time to browse a bit.