Florida has a Manatee Crisis

Florida manatee deaths have officially topped 1,000, a new single-year record. While manatee deaths have recently slowed, Max Chesnes reports that experts are bracing for a deadly winter. 

Backstory: The previous record for annual manatee deaths was set in 2013 when 830 manatees died after exposure to toxic red tide. Now, sea cows are dying in new record numbers because the food source they depend on—seagrass—is in short supply thanks to worsening water quality (think fertilizer runoff and other pollutants that feed algae blooms). More than half of seagrasses have disappeared in the Indian River Lagoon, a key habitat for Florida manatees seeking warm waters during winter. Power plant decommissions have resulted in a loss of warm water habitats for the manatee to retreat.

Seagrass die-off has led to the first ever unusual mortality event for manatees related to starvation. But starvation isn’t the only threat facing manatees. Boat strikes and marine debris are also part of the problem. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently found that only 4% of adult manatees have never been injured by a boat or watercraft strike. Instead, most manatees show evidence of being struck multiple times in their lives.

Disclaimer: The following photos are graphic in nature and show dead manatees.

Downlisting the manatee’s protection status was opposed by experts in 2017. “The experts worried the proposal was based on an incomplete analysis of the data available at the time and effectively disregarded significant die-offs in 2010 and 2013. They also pointed out there was no discussion of climate change or how factors like sea-level rise, hurricanes and warmer waters—where harmful algae blooms flourish—might affect manatee habitat,” reported Amy Green for Inside Climate News. Still, the manatee was downlisted from endangered to threatened by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. However, new proposed legislation, the Manatee Protection Act, would designate Florida’s manatee as endangered.  

The Solutions: Improving water quality is key to saving Florida manatees, as well as continuing to curb manatee death by boat with speed limits and boat-free zones. “Almost two and a half million pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural chemicals, lawn fertilizers and leaky septic tanks flow into the lagoon each year. As the water quality has deteriorated, some manatees have been wintering in waters warmed by discharges from power plants along Florida’s Atlantic coast,” reported National Geographic earlier this year.

Wildlife authorities are considering a controversial idea: supplemental feeding in the Indian River Lagoon. It’s not ideal, as supplemental feeding can change manatees’ behavior, but authorities may still test feeding wild manatees natural or agriculture-based vegetation before they become malnourished this winter. Meanwhile, state and federal scientists are looking into “ways to restore, enhance and create warm-water manatee habitats along Florida’s Gulf Coast,” reports Naples Daily News.

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