Manatee Springs Run 3: Main line to Snow, Spring, and Syphon Tunnels

On 9/21/2025, KUR divers Lea Johnson, Wes Farley and Shawn Blakeslee conducted a cave dive to more than 10,000 linear ft in penetration into the cave system at Manatee Springs State Park, Levy County, Florida, USA. This dive was part of an ongoing collection of samples in the system to observe water quality parameters at different areas of the cave. Divers towed a YSI EXO3 datasonde, recording water temperature, pH, specific conductivity, and dissolved oxygen in real time throughout the dive. Grab samples of water (500ml Nalgene) were taken at predetermined locations in the cave, including the far upstream source tunnels, the Spring Tunnel (sample #6), the Snow Tunnel (sample #4) and also the Syphon Tunnel (sample #5), as indicated on the Manatee Cave System map. Sample numbers, corresponding markers placed on the dive guideline, and dive times are given to synchronize with the real-time datasonde data.