Who wants to be a crocodile response agent when they grow up? Gee, that’s a lot of raised hands.

Seriously, the state of Florida wants to talk with you folks about a part time job so interesting that you won’t mind unpredictable working hours, total lack of standard employment benefits and the requirement to supply your own equipment and vehicles — boat, truck, trailer, heavy duty fishing tackle, ropes, snares, snatch hooks, etc.

You also need to reside in southern Miami-Dade County or the upper to middle Keys, because that is where the action is. It can’t wait while you drive down there from Fort Lauderdale.

First the duties and qualifications as described by SNAP for short — the Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program:

“Agents are responsible for site visits, carcass recoveries, capture and translocations of crocodiles. Experience handling crocodilians preferred but training will be provided. Good customer services skills are a must.”

When crocodiles climb out of a canal and into somebody’s yard or pool, car or house — some or all of that — it will be your job to catch that croc and take it away, dead or alive.

Why are customer service skills important? For settling the nerves of frantic folks who send for you and for creating trusting relationships with crocodiles that might reasonably mistake you for a threat.

You have to decide if the reward, $25 an hour with no set schedule, is worth the risk.

That’s a cool thousand in a 40-hour week if you get that much work. You probably won’t, so consider croc work an adventure, not a career.

It may embolden you to know that American crocodiles, the South Florida brand, usually are described by experts as shy.

That doesn’t mean they are socially awkward wallflowers. It means they are timid, easily scared off. In their own primitive way, they understand that a lit- tle bit of fear is healthy because it makes them careful and keeps them safe.

Anyone with the ambition to mess with crocodiles should adopt that outlook.

Other stuff that successful applicants need to know:

Fish and Wildlife (FWC) staff will teach you how to do the job. They’ll also supply what you need — presumably a clipboard, charts and that sort of thing to keep detailed logs of your crocs.

After applying, monitor your email daily. If the folks in charge of croc ops at FWC like your application, they will contact you by email. Beware: sometimes FWC email gets diverted to spam folders, so check those too.

After initial email exchanges, further review will lead to either rejection or an invitation for an in-person interview.

None of that happens fast, so be patient, the FWC warns: “With our upcoming seasonal work schedule we don’t anticipate being able to begin reviewing applications for some time.”

The crocs can wait if you can.

Everglades’ superintendent heading west

Dan Kimball is retiring after 10 years as dual super- intendent of Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Parks. He’ll be guest of honor at a retirement dinner put on by the South Florida National Parks Trust on Friday, March 21, at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables. Then it’s westward ho, to arid Arizona. That’s a radical departure from one of the world’s greatest swamps, but deserts, mountains and cold winters have their own allure.

“I went to graduate school at the University of Arizona in Tucson, my wife grew up in Idaho and we lived in Colorado for 30 years. As such, we have a real attachment to the western United States,” Kimball told Waterfront Times.

He started his National Park Service career in 1984. Before coming to Florida he was chief of the NPS water resources division in Colorado for 12 years, then acting superintendent of Zion National Park in Utah and was special assistant to the deputy director of the park service in Washington.

Kimball’s background in water resources served him well at Everglades, where he helped lead multi-agency projects to restore natural freshwater flow that was blocked long ago for agricultural and highway purposes. The latest completed one is a section of Tamiami Trail where the old roadbed was dug out and replaced by a bridge. That lets water from the state conservation areas north of the Trail to flow through to the park

For sporfishing, Kimball’s single best achievement was a pole and troll zone to protect the fish-infested shoal in Snake Bight from destructive gouging by boat engine propellers. He welcomed participation by veteran guides and other local experts, who worked with park staff to make rules that all could live with.

He leaves Everglades with a much larger job yet undone: a general management plan (GMP) that’s been going through the government mill throughout his tenure here. The latest version is in revision following a round of public hearings that Kimball conducted last year.

The plan has hit this stage before and been kicked back by NPS headquarters for being too ambitious and expensive.

“We hope to issue a final GMP this summer and a Record of Decision by the end of 2014,” Kimball said, cau- tious to say “we hope” instead of “we will.”

“It’s been a long, long haul, but the Park is poised to complete this important plan this year and address challenging problems facing the Park, like boating management in Florida Bay.”

Kimball made a point of recognizing the assistance of fishing guides and others, who are likely to remember him best for being a good listener, taking their complaints and suggestions seriously and often following their advice.

“Because of their involvement, the plan represents a much better long-term plan for Park management, providing for resource protection, but also reasonable access,” he said.

His replacement, not yet appointed, would be wise to maintain those relationships.

The farewell dinner is being planned by the South Florida National Parks Trust, which raises money and makes grants to Everglades, Biscayne and Dry Tortugas National Parks and the Big Cypress Preserve. For details about the event, contact info@southfloridaparks.org.

Manatee count rising

In the future of evolution, a day may come when manatees will be physically able to fill in census questionnaires, for within their mittenish forefins are bone sets remarkably like five-fingered human hands.

Until those emerge, manatee census data must be gathered by aerial eyeball observation, which cannot be precise. It’s closest during strong cold fronts, when man- atees congregate at warm water locations like power plants.

That was the case on Jan. 24 and 27, when airborne state biologists and 20 observers from nine environmental organizations counted 2,317 manatees on the state’s east coast and 2,514 on the west.

Total: 4,831, subject to follow-up verification.

Those were all they saw. There’s no way to know how many they didn’t see. They didn’t see any in 2013 or 2012 when the surveys were called off because of warm weather.

Except for individual markings such as the scars of healed wounds — usually inflicted by motorboat propellers — one manatee looks so much like another that it’s hard to tell them apart.

On the upside, unlike schools of fish swimming, manatees that find warm spots when the water’s cold stay at the surface and hold still. An accurate count can be made of all that are visible.

“After two winters of above-average temperatures, this year we received several consecutive strong cold fronts that helped to gather manatees at warm-water sites where they could be more easily counted,” said FWC manatee biologist Holly Edwards.

Because of weather and other year-to-year variables, the surveys can’t be used for confident population pro- jections in the long term or even to establish a reliable statewide estimate for the present. Still it’s useful for scientists to have an at-least number for comparisons. Knowing where manatees go each year to find warm water when it gets cold helps in deciding where to establish protection zones.

“This year’s manatee count is the third highest we have recorded since the first statewide aerial survey in 1991,” said Gil McRae, director of the FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. “We are encouraged by the relatively high count, especially given the high number of manatee deaths documented recently.”

Documented fatalities last year totaled 829, with curiously high scores of 275 in Lee County (southwest) and 245 in Brevard County (northeast). Through January this year, the same counties had the state’s most fatalities — 12 in Brevard and seven in Lee.

The statistics say there were 72 watercraft-related deaths last year, comparing favorably with the average of 88 in the previous five years.

Here’s a chart of documented manatee deaths in Florida last year, with causes when that’s known: http://myfwc.com/media/2600491/YearToDate.pdf.

FWC has a lot of manatee info online here: http://myfwc.com/research/manatee/information.