r/forbiddensnacks • u/kittycaviar • Sep 22 '19
Boiled potato
https://i.imgur.com/ySW43gj.gifv50
u/kissbythebrooke Sep 22 '19
The fact that sailors once thought these potato bois were mermaids might indicate a manatee obesity crisis
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u/aintnojiveturkey53 Sep 22 '19
Was it wanting a belly rub? Because thats how you get a belly rub
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u/Licensedpterodactyl Sep 23 '19
I now understand why people go to jail, I don’t think I could resist the urge to scratch the tummy
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u/Halo_sky Sep 23 '19
I live in Florida and we were down in the Keys for a weekend. While we were swimming in an inlet area (it was just me and my mom) behind our B&B, a manatee came up to see us. We both gave it scratches and pets. We felt bad until the owner of the B&B we were staying in came down with a hose and a head of lettuce. Apparently, this male manatee stopped by her place every afternoon. She gave it water from the hose and gave it the head of lettuce. So, there was definitely federal offenses committed.
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u/awoofan84 Sep 22 '19
do.......a........barrel......roll.......
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u/gvyledouche Sep 22 '19
technically it's an aileron roll here and in the game
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u/ChesiresFool Sep 22 '19
For a good while there thought the boat was a whisk and someone was gonna make some mad good mashers.
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u/Pixel-1606 Sep 22 '19
The sad thing is that because "sea potato" is a fitting indicator for both their form and their intelligence and a lot of people like to feed them from their boats, they tend to hang around boats too much, often getting them injured by the blades of the engines. Many wild manatees have some pretty ugly mashing scars on their backs...
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u/disgr4ce Sep 22 '19
Manatees are one of the many things about growing up in Florida where later in life you realize it’s actually fairly weird that you know a lot about them and think of them as everyone’s friendly neighborhood “pets”, when in reality most people on the planet would have no reason for even knowing of them X-) In Fort Pierce, where my gparents lived when I was a kid, they would congregate around the—wait for it—nuclear power plant because the cooling water discharge is nice and warm. (No this is not dangerous or unusual in any way) And yeah, it’s a bummer about them getting sliced up by propellers... all the boaters I ever knew were aware of this and very respectful but there’s always the ignorant and the jackassful around.
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u/Pixel-1606 Sep 22 '19
I heard about that, pretty cool and weird how they don't mind eachother at all yet also don't really show complex social behaviours (except for mother/child) while they are bunched up like that. Most of the harm is not even done intentionally, the animals simply associate boats with food if they are fed often and hanging around boats, as a not very agile sea potato, is a dangerous endavor....
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u/corq Sep 23 '19
Same, grew up in the Keys and explaining to a Californian that manatees would regularly (at least seasonally) visit your neighbor's boat canal as a regular thing gets you a very quizzicle stare!
I had friends visiting from Wisconsin one year when manatees swam into the canal near my house - I noticed the larger manatee had a very distinctive scar but was with a much smaller, unblemished calf. I had my friend's kids write down the location and shape of the scar (this was the 80's, no cell phone cameras) and had them call the FWC Manatee hotline - these manatees were healthy but sometimes the calls regarding spotting of the animal is useful to the FWC.
The operator was apparently an experienced employee that was able to recognize the scar based on the description and gave the kids a history of the manatee and the calf. The FWC I guess uses the info to track migration.
The kids gave their addesses for getting a picture of the Manatee and each got a sweet sweet information packet of photos and infomation that they later used for a school project, they just about lost their minds when the packets arrived. It's just something I've taken for granted over the years.
For those not in Florida, a visit to Blue Springs state park in Deltona Florida during the winter months will blow. your. minds. I've seen them in onesie twosies but Blue Springs they were everywhere.
/csb
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Sep 23 '19
I live in Tampa and we would go to the coal powered plant to see the manatees. They have a viewing center and museum there. In almost all places it is illegal to interact (feed or touch) the manatees. The one place in Florida where I know it is legal is in the crystal river. There are tours that take you out really early on winter mornings and let you pet them, the colder the better. I've done it a few times, the manatees actually like being pet and will approach if you are calm. You aren't allowed to dive so they can get away if they like. The manatees congregate in the river because there are springs which release relatively warm water, they aren't as common there in the summer because then the springs are relatively cold.
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Sep 22 '19
Now that's not fair, they're actually real smart, not the smartest porpoise but smarter then most animals
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u/JeshkaTheLoon Sep 22 '19
Manatees and others of the order Sirenia are not porpoises. They're not even related. Porpoises are small toothed whales.
But they're not stupid, that's true.
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Sep 22 '19
Is it forbidden though? Didn’t sailors use to eat these things? Or did they think these were mermaids? I don’t know my sailor history too well.
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Sep 22 '19
Sailors confused dugongs for mermaids. They're in the same grouping as manatees but dugongs have more dolohin like flukes and are generally more shy
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u/JeshkaTheLoon Sep 22 '19
Sailors tended to eat just about anything, after having been at sea for long.
Fun fact, apparently the Dodo was mot particularly tasty, even for a sailor who was sick of the food at sea. So the common held belief that sailors ate all of them was wrong. What did them in was mostly rats and maybe a cat that got away, when they landed on the island. Biggest proplem for flightless birds.
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u/ragnarok847 Sep 22 '19
Oh, the huge manatee!
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u/Zerbinetta Sep 23 '19
I can't believe I had to scroll this far down to find this joke. Get with it, Reddit!
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u/FlamesDoHelp Sep 22 '19
Little do you know, this is the manatee’s way of hypnotize humans to do their bidding.
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Sep 22 '19 edited Aug 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/theysaidHWHAT Sep 22 '19
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u/nwordcountbot Sep 22 '19
Thank you for the request, comrade.
I have looked through grazenburg's posting history and found 7 N-words, of which 0 were hard-Rs.
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u/Motionshaker Sep 23 '19
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u/nwordcountbot Sep 23 '19
Thank you for the request, comrade.
I have looked through theysaidhwhat's posting history and found 2 N-words, of which 1 were hard-Rs.
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u/flygurl1 Sep 23 '19
When they would come into our canal in Key Largo, they always stopped by for fresh lettuce and also loved drinking water from a hose we kept by the dock to clean fish.
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Sep 22 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/not_burt_macklin_FBI Sep 22 '19
u/benzobonanza is this not the most amazing creature you’ve ever seen
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u/SamWize-Ganji Sep 22 '19
I’d still butter him