The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-27)

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Travel

SUNDAY, MARCH 27 , 2022. SECTION F

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The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted travel domestically and around the world. You will find the latest developments at washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/

NAVIGATOR

Waiting for coronavirus

results is stressful. Here’s

how travelers can cope. F2

FOOD

Learn to make su filindeu,

one of the world’s rarest

pastas, in Sardinia. F3

CANADA

Montreal’s new

attractions — inside and

outside the big top. F5

BY KATE SILVER

Patrick Rose vividly remembers his first

underwater encounter with a manatee. It was in

the late ’60s, and he was spending his college

spring break in the Sunshine State. While diving

in Kings Bay in the town of Crystal River, he first

saw the manatee’s white scar, probably caused by

a collision with a boat propeller. To him, the

creature’s vulnerability was even more striking

than its size or its gentle nature. “It cemented for

me that I need to be a defender of these animals,”

Rose says. As executive director of Save the

Manatee Club, a nonprofit started by singer-

songwriter Jimmy Buffett and Florida Gov. Bob

Graham (D) in 1981, he has dedicated his career

to doing just that.

In the past year, the serious-faced sea cows

have needed defenders more than ever. Around

1,100 manatees died, many of starvation, in 2021

— that’s roughly 15 percent of the state’s

estimated population of 6,000 to 7,000 manatees

— in what’s being called an “unusual mortality

event” related to a dramatic loss of the sea grass

they feed on in the Indian River Lagoon, near

Florida’s Atlantic coast. And 2022 is off to an

alarming start with 420 dead as of March 11. To

put that in context, in all of 2020, 637 manatees

died.

I set up a phone call with Rose after reading

the news. I’ve loved those strange, docile,

SEE MANATEES ON F6

Sink

or swim

Manatees are receiving extra attention after

a tough year. In Florida, defenders of the

gentle giants are working to protect them.

ISTOCK

About 1,100 manatees died, many of starvation, in 2021, and as of March 11, 420 have died in 2022.

BY ANDREA SACHS

O

n a numbingly cold day in Upstate

New York, Judith Bryant was eating

a bowl of potato, p arsnip and turnip

soup at a cafe in downtown Auburn. In

between spoonfuls, she talked about the

town’s m ost famous resident, who lived in

what is now part of the Harriet Tubman

National Historical Park. Judith also re-

sides nearby, in a house that Tubman’s

nephew built, which was no coincidence.

“My grandmother was Harriet Tub-

man’s grandniece,” said the vivacious 85-

year-old great-great-grandniece of Tub-

man, one of several descendants in the

Finger Lakes area.

Highlight reels of Tubman’s life often

focus on the first half of her biography:

her escape from slavery in Maryland, her

valiant acts as a conductor on the Under-

ground Railroad, her heroic feats as a

Black woman in the Civil War. The 2019

film “Harriet,” for instance, ends with the

“Moses of Her People” leading Union

soldiers in the Combahee River Raid in

South Carolina, a military operation that

liberated more than 700 enslaved people.

However, the more than half a century

she spent in Auburn — from 185 9, when

she purchased seven acres of land from a

prominent political family, to 1913, when

she died of pneumonia — is equally stir-

ring.

“A uburn could be the sequel to ‘Harri-

et,’ ” said Angela Daddabbo, co-founder

and artistic director of the Auburn Public

Theater, which d isplays a marquee poster

of Tubman as if she were a headlining

performer.

A variety of attractions illuminate Tub-

SEE TUBMAN ON F4

A lasting legacy: Tubman’s former N.Y. city celebrates her life

UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/

GETTY IMAGES

Abolitionist Harriet Tubman.