She was from a species so plentiful that they shut out the sunlight when they flew overhead. We cannot destroy where any one of us lives without losing something, and someday that something lost may be too much and take us with it. The herbicides brought in to free Crystal River of noxious weed growth for boaters and fishing killed almost all the aquatic vegetation except a native blue-green algae called lyngbya. It took over, and there is nothing that kills it. It billows black, all over the bottom of the bay and belches up and floats on the surface in ugly black, bubbly mats.
Nothing kills it.
That's why it was the only survivor of the war of herbicides. We have been unable to control it in our waters, and it covers most manatee food, blocking the sunlight. Looking out for manatees is another way of looking out for oneself. The beauty that was Crystal River has changed with the lyngbya algae infestation. Manatees are working very hard to earn a living in an ecosystem that has been altered daily by an avalanche of people-population growth.