CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. —A Crystal River man captured video of a manatee getting a nose full of gasoline fumes as it came up for fresh air in a canal.
Barry Bowman shot the video last week off his back deck in Crystal River. For weeks he and his neighbors complained to authorities about gallons of gasoline spilling into the waterway from an unknown location.
Bowman says officials came and inspected the areas affected but couldn’t find the cause.
"There were manatees in here and they were struggling to get a breath without a getting a face full of gasoline so it was pretty traumatic. The oder was pretty noxious at times," said Bowman.
Bowman says the gasoline mysteriously disappeared a couple of days ago at around the same time that a large barge left the area.
