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Manatee Spring is located in Manatee Springs State Park in Chiefland. From the main parking lot, approximately 200 feet of sidewalk leads to the headspring. This first-magnitude spring has strong flow, creating a significant boil during most times of the year. The spring pool measures 60 ft north to south and 75 ft east to west. The depth of the spring pool is 25 ft, and the bottom of the spring pool is sand with numerous submerged logs. A boardwalk follows the quarter-mile-long spring run through cypress wetlands and out to the Suwannee River. Alligators, manatees, and other aquatic wildlife are frequent sights in the park.

Manatee is open to the public for swimming, diving, camping and other recreational activities. The Catfish Hotel basin is popular with open water divers, and the cave system is well traveled by the cave diving community. DPVs are allowed for all divers, within the limits of their certification. As of 2020, the park has prohibited diving between the headspring and Catfish sink due to dangerous flow conditions. Over five miles of passage has been surveyed in the cave system. Numerous artifacts have been found in and around the cave system including fossils of large mammals and pottery.

Across the picnic area from the main spring, and just to the southeast of the main spring is Catfish Hotel. It is a roughly circular 60 ft diameter, duckweed-covered pond with stairs leading to the water. The cave system is accessed from on the North side of the basin. Once in the cavern, follow the flow East and North. The main gold line begins just out sight behind a rock at a depth of 70 feet.

Approximately 1700 ft upstream of Catfish, the diver encounters a T with an exit line marked straight up to a fissure in the ceiling. This is Friedman’s sink, the furthest known upstream entrance to the system. From the surface, Friedman’s is accessed from a dirt parking lot a short distance to the East of the main park road. A 500’ foot wooded trail leads to the south side of a small sink, with adjacent tank benches. The entrance fissure crack is about 15’ from the water’s edge in the center of the pond. Deco can be performed in trim, but there is not much space to pass other team members.

The cave system has an average depth of about 70 feet with significant depth changes between 30 and 90’. Visibility downstream of the sewer tunnel (1400’ upstream of Catfish and 300’ downstream of Friedman’s) is generally dominated by large particulate, and vis tends to improve significantly upstream of this junction. Sue sink is located approximately halfway between Catfish and Fredman’s and is considered an emergency exit.