From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):
As we head into winter, Florida’s manatees face a perilous future.
The manatees aren’t finding enough to eat in the places that will keep them warm — meaning they will have to venture out in the cold or risk starvation.
The last few winters contributed to a record-setting number of losses. Let’s make sure Florida’s manatees have all the protections they need to survive.
Stand with us in calling on the Biden administration to grant manatees endangered species protections under the Endangered Species Act at https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=53030.
So far this year, more than 700 manatees have died — and things will only get worse as temperatures drop.1
With big, rounded bodies, manatees look like they should have the same layer of blubber that keeps whales and walruses warm in cold Arctic waters. In reality, they’re very sensitive to cold temperatures.
In normal years, manatees deal with their sensitivity to cold by spending the winter months in special warm-water havens. One of the largest and most important of these havens is a biologically diverse estuary called the Indian River Lagoon, located on Florida’s Atlantic coast.
Manatees usually gather here, where the water remains warm throughout winter, and forage on the lagoon’s beds of seagrass to sustain themselves.2
But in recent years, this haven has been leaving the manatees hungry.
Over the past few years, pollution from leaking septic systems, fertilizer runoff and wastewater treatment has seeped into the lagoon. This pollution creates massive algal blooms that block light from reaching the ocean floor, killing much of the seagrass manatees need to survive.3
Without sufficient food in warm-water places like the Indian River Lagoon, manatees will either have to go out in the cold in search of food — leaving them at risk of developing potentially fatal cold stress — or they’ll have to go hungry to stay in the warmth, losing dozens or even hundreds of pounds.4
As they face another winter, manatees need our help. Join us in calling for their protection.
Last winter, this problem with cold and food killed 1 in 10 of Florida’s manatees.5
Of the dead manatees that researchers were able to study this past January and February, 88% showed signs of malnutrition. And last year’s food shortages have left many of the surviving manatees vulnerable, with many likely suffering from chronic malnutrition.6
In other words, manatees are set up for trouble this winter.
With such high losses, it’s important that manatees have the maximum level of protection under the law to help protect them and their critical habitats from further harm.
That’s why we’re calling on the Biden administration to restore their full protections as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.
Tell the Biden administration: Protect our country’s manatees.
1. Ben Montgomery, “Florida manatees face another difficult winter,” Axios Tampa Bay, October 11, 2022.
2. Benji Jones, “The manatees are starving,” Vox, February 8, 2022.
3. Salomé Gómez-Upegui, “Florida’s manatees are dying in record numbers — but a lawsuit offers hope,” The Guardian, June 10, 2022.
4. “Manatees,” Southwest Florida Water Management District, last accessed October 18, 2022.
5. Salomé Gómez-Upegui, “Florida’s manatees are dying in record numbers — but a lawsuit offers hope,” The Guardian, June 10, 2022.
6. Ben Montgomery, “Florida manatees face another difficult winter,” Axios Tampa Bay, October 11, 2022.
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