Eco-tour operator hopes disturbing video will inspire protection for manatees

It’s hard to watch, but the reel Taylor Masnjak recently uploaded to Instagram was posted for good reason. “I thought it was a good opportunity to share this so that we could talk about it on a larger scale,” she said. The video, which Masnjak recorded with her drone last March, shows a boater in Hernando County plowing over a group of more than 20 manatees that were gathered in a shallow spot on the Mud River. The manatees scatter frantically before regrouping.