She weighed 1, pounds, up to pounds less than she should have at 12 years old. Her recovery would be long and grueling, if she survived. So none of those calories yet are going to put weight on. During an unprecedented manatees have died in Florida, more than double the five-year annual average only nine months into the year.
More than half of the deaths are in the Indian River Lagoon, a mile East Coast estuary that is among the most biologically diverse on the continent. Many of the deaths are related to the kind of starvation No. The calamity comes four years after the U.
Fish and Wildlife Service USFWS effectively declared the manatee on the way toward recovery and downlisted the animal from endangered to threatened, a decision that generated widespread opposition. Now some experts say the downlisting not only was premature but neglected scientifically documented warning signs at the time that manatees were in trouble, leaving the animals vulnerable for the latest in a series of mortality events. Two Florida congressional leaders—Reps.
For manatees the paucity means that when a cold snap occurs they face a crucial choice: whether to stay and potentially starve or forage elsewhere and freeze. But manatees in Florida were stressed long before now and not just in the Indian River Lagoon.
During the past decade there have been multiple mortality events. In there were deaths, the previous record. In January it was clear something was wrong again in the Indian River Lagoon, said Bill Greer, a research associate at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who is part of a three-person team rescuing dead and ailing manatees in the lagoon.
After a series of cold snaps the team began receiving almost daily calls about dead manatees, more than the team had experienced before. The team members reached out to other agencies for help. Most of the deaths occurred in January, February and March. Under the Endangered Species Act, an endangered animal is at risk of extinction throughout all or most of its range. A threatened one is likely to become endangered in the near future. The downlisting was opposed by all four scientific experts who peer-reviewed the proposal, a vast majority of the 3, organizations and individuals who submitted public comments including petitions signed by 75, individuals and the Miccosukee Tribe.
It's more than twice the number of deaths recorded just one year earlier: manatees died in the same period in while a total of died over the course of the entire year , according to the FWC. The record die-off constituted an "unusual mortality event," or a sudden surge in deaths of a species.
This year's die-off was primarily due to starvation, with a spike in boat strike deaths in the summer, the FWC said in its most recent manatee mortality report. Manatees are rescued when they're orphaned, injured or starving. Most of the deaths occurred in the Indian River Lagoon, a well-tread winter home for manatees in the state that links to the Atlantic Ocean.
Some develop lesions on their flippers akin to frostbite, he adds. Laws to safeguard manatees date back to the British occupation of East Florida in the 18 th century, making them some of the oldest wildlife protection laws in North America. But by the mids, numbers of the gentle creatures had dwindled to the low hundreds. In , the U. Department of the Interior put the Florida manatee on its first list of animals protected under the newly created Endangered Species Preservation Act, requiring steps to be taken to ensure their recovery.
Under federal protection, manatees rallied, and by , the U. As waters warm up this spring and summer, manatees in Indian River Lagoon are likely to move to areas with more abundant seagrass and other aquatic vegetation. Fewer should die, de Wit says, but manatees are creatures of habit.
Waves of cold fronts hit the Sunshine State in early Another cause of manatee deaths, boat strikes, have claimed 17 so far this year, which is about average. More than 4, species of plants and animals live in the Indian River Lagoon, making it one of the most biodiverse estuaries in the Northern Hemisphere.
But algal blooms caused by pollution have persisted in the lagoon for a decade, says Daniel Slone, an aquatic ecosystem researcher with the U. Geological Survey. In December, a particularly large algal bloom depleted dissolved oxygen in the water. Dead fish floated in the mangroves along the shore, and much of the remaining seagrass below that turbid water withered. Manatees began dying of hunger.
Old septic tanks are being repaired or replaced, and projects to reduce the phosphorus content of wastewater from the Fleming Island Regional Wastewater Plant are in the works. The average adult manatee is about 10 feet long. Brevard County had the highest number of Manatee deaths in with It is estimated that there are at least 13, manatees , with more than 6, in the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico.
Manatees live in many aquatic habitats.
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