Springs Lore
Wildlife
Blue Springs
What We Measure
SpringWatch Groups
100
The transition from private attraction to state park at these springs placed "mermaid" on the state job rolls in 2008.
What is Weeki Wachee?
100
This common springs dweller is also Florida's State Freshwater Fish.
What is a Largemouth Bass?
100
This Florida spring regularly attracts the largest congregation of manatees each winter.
What is Volusia Blue Spring?
100
While it varies a few degrees among regions of the state, 72 is said to be its average.
What is the WATER TEMPERATURE of Florida springs?
100
These are the two SpringsWatch groups closest to where we are sitting now.
What is Ichetucknee and Santa Fe?
200
The Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed at this spring, which is also home to one of our SpringsWatch groups.
What is Wakulla Springs?
200
This threatened marine mammal depends on Florida's warm spring waters for survival during winter months.
What is a manatee?
200
Nicknamed 'Jug Hole' for its shape, this spring is a feature of Ichetucknee Springs State Park.
What is Blue Hole?
200
This water quality parameter is typically lowest close to spring vents, and rises as you head downstream away from vents.
What is dissolved oxygen?
200
Started in 2011, this was the FIRST SpringsWatch group established by the Florida Springs Institute.
What is Silver River SpringsWatch?
300
This Florida spring system can claim Tarzan and two James Bond movies.
What is Silver Springs?
300
Monkeys were introduced to these springs in the 1930s by a tour boat operator named Colonel Tooey. Visitors to the river and springs can still see their descendents today.
What is Silver Springs?
300
This is home to Florida's newest state park. The boardwalk that lined its spring run sustained damage from Hurricane Irma and was removed recently.
What is Gilchrist Blue Springs?
300
This tells us how well water conducts an electrical current at a specific temperature. It can point to the presence of compounds like salt, limestone, or pollutants.
What is specific conductance?
300
Formed in 2022 along Florida's Springs Coast, this newest SpringsWatch group visits 7 springs each month (when they're accessible).
What is Kings Bay SpringsWatch?
400
This springs-based state park is home to the oldest living hippo in the world. "Lu" is 63 years old.
What is Homosassa Springs?
400
Ichetucknee-wet SpringsWatch volunteers counted 2,460 of these in a quarter-mile stretch of the river on their last outing.
What are native Florida apple snail eggs?
400
Home to one of our SpringsWatch groups, this first magnitude spring shares a man-made pond with at least six smaller springs.
What is Jackson Blue Spring?
400
Volunteers using the meter that measures how light travels through the water column must take four of its five readings under this condition.
What is SHADE?
400
These two SpringsWatch groups are the only ones in which volunteers use no boats of any kind. They can walk into their springs systems.
What are Homosassa SpringsWatch and Panhandle SpringsWatch?
500
Home to one of our SpringsWatch groups, changing one letter in the Creek Indian name of these waters transforms its meaning from spring to river.
What is Wekiwa or Wekiva?
500
A frequent feathery visitor to Florida springs, this bird is nicknamed "snakebird" for its long snake-like neck as it slithers through the water.
What is an Anhinga?
500
Home to a state park, this spring is situated along Florida's famed Suwannee River.
What is Lafayette Blue Spring?
500
Normally used vertically to measure water clarity in lakes, nearly all our SpringsWatch volunteers deploy this device horizontally in their springs systems.
What is a Secchi disk?
500
This SpringsWatch group recently switched their transportation method from motorized pontoon boat to paddlecraft.
What is Rainbow SpringsWatch?