I just returned from a vacation in Miami, where I happened to learn a little about manatees and their fate down in Florida. Strangely enough, when I come back, one of the first news articles I come across is about manatees down near Miami…
What’s going on with the manatees is that they are dying in huge numbers. This is due to three main factors: speedboats, red tide, and the loss of their winter habitats at power plants. With all this in mind, how could the government have a valid reason for taking the “endangered” label off the manatee?
Image Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b1/Manatee_photo.jpg/230px-Manatee_photo.jpg
According to wildlife officials, manatees are no longer considered “endangered” because they are not in any immediate danger; rather, they would prefer to label the manatees as “threatened.” This change of status, though, may take many years to occur, and if it does happen, some fear that the general public will no longer view manatees as “in danger” and ignore the efforts to keep them up and about in the oceans.
In 2006 there were 3,113 manatees in Florida. This year the count is 2,812. As a percentage decrease, that is: 3113 – 2812 = 301, 301/3113 = x/100, x = 9.67% decrease in Florida manatee population in one year. Wow, hopefully that % decrease per year doesn’t remain constant for the next ten years, because if you round that percentage up to a 10% decrease per year, that means it would take just 10 years for the Florida manatee population to go extinct.
The manatee does not have natural predators; however, it has a material predator, and that is the boat propeller. When I was at Key Biscayne National Park, I saw pictures of manatees that had scars all over their bodies due to speedboat propellers. I also read on one of the plaques that most manatees do not survive when they come into contact with speedboats. The place I was at, Biscayne National Park, has manatee zones marked off so that speedboats know when to slow down. This has helped to cause a general increase in the number of manatees over the last 30 years or so. Other problems that they face are being drowned in canal locks, hurt by fishing lines and hooks gone astray, red tide algae blooms, and cold winters.
The likely closings of power plants in Florida over the next few decades won’t help their survival either. Manatees cannot survive in excessively cold water (they need at least about 60 degrees Fahrenheit). They rely on warm discharge water from power plants.
As I learned when I was down in Florida, the best thing that people (or boaters) can do for them is to simply slow down when they are in those marked off manatee zones.
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April 17, 2007 at 8:15 am
That is strange how a change of status could have that big of an effect on the view of animals. It shouldn’t matter if the animal is endangered or threatened, we should take of them no matter what. If it is true that by changing the manitee status to threatened, people would care about them less, I hate to think of what else we would do with them. Especially, since people are already threatening the manitees lives on a daily basis with their speed boats ancd things.
April 17, 2007 at 9:25 pm
I agree with Leslie. I think that with an almost 10% decrease in the manatte population, their would be a greater concern over their protection. I also found it very interesting that you mentioned that the likely closing of power plants could hurt the manattes. I would have thought that the closing of power plants wouls help more survive because it would reduce the amount of pollution in the air and lead to better air quality. But as you explained it will most likely lead to cooler waters which manattes will be unable to survive in.