By Elizabeth Neville, Save the Manatee Club
Sea cows, chubby mermaids, floaty potatoes: Manatees bear many silly nicknames, but their importance to Florida’s environment and economy is serious. Today is Manatee Appreciation Day, and there are many things that individuals and leaders can do to care for our beloved, yet imperiled, state marine mammal.
There is much to appreciate about manatees. Manatees are a keystone species, which means that their well-being can indicate the well-being of their entire ecosystem. As grazers, manatees keep aquatic vegetation healthy and ecosystems balanced. Manatees are also economic drivers, generating hundreds of millions of dollars per year in visitor spending from manatee tourism and direct economic value.
Sadly, manatees’ future is far from certain. Thankfully, there are actionable solutions available to both individuals and elected leaders to address threats to manatees.
(Photo by David Schrichte/Ocean Image Bank, CC BY-NC)
A little individual effort can go a long way to help manatees. For one, when on the water, complying with posted speed zones and intentionally looking out for manatees can reduce the risk of watercraft strikes, which are the foremost direct, human-caused source of manatee mortality. As approximately 96% of adult manatees bear scars from watercraft strikes, this remains a serious issue for the species.
Another important action is reducing our households’ nutrient pollution (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorous) such as by going “fertilizer-free” in our outdoor spaces, and converting from polluting septic systems to widespread advanced wastewater treatment. Excess pollution of nutrients into waterways fuel harmful algal blooms, which can be detrimental to manatees and other aquatic life.
Other actions include disposing of trash properly to avoid habitat degradation and ingestion by manatees, and reporting injured, orphaned or dead manatees to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at (888) 404-3922.
Our elected leaders have the power to address some of manatees’ most pressing challenges. As noted, nutrient pollution is a serious issue. Recently in the Indian River Lagoon, shading from such nutrient-fueled algal blooms killed off broad swaths of seagrass. This resulted in an “Unusual Mortality Event,” from 2020–2022, wherein over 1,200 manatees died from starvation due to lack of forage. Seagrass is beginning to recover in parts of the lagoon, supported by water quality improvement programs; however, with myriad threats to this ecosystem, restoration activities must continue.
Florida’s legislators have an opportunity to support this during the upcoming special session on the budget. Save the Manatee Club supports funding Indian River Lagoon restoration efforts at the full, dedicated $100 million level directed by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2023 executive order. We also support adequate funding for water quality improvement in other important habitats to manatees, such as Biscayne Bay. With growing pressures, water quality restoration is essential to the species’ future survival.
The greatest long-term threat to manatees is loss of essential warm-water habitat that manatees require to survive cold weather. Manatees struggle to thermoregulate and thus seek natural warm-water sources like natural springs (which maintain a consistent temperature of 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter. However, due to habitat loss, over 60% of Florida’s manatees now depend on industrial outfalls for warmth. This is an unsustainable situation; outages leave manatees vulnerable, and in the future, most power plants plan to transition their technology to methods that no longer discharge warm water.
Restoring natural sources of warm-water habitat for manatees will be essential to ensuring the species’ stability. Florida’s Legislature has an opportunity to help by adequately funding FWC’s implementation of its “Florida Manatee Warm-Water Habitat Action Plan,” as well as ensuring adequate funding for FWC’s other manatee activities.
Looking forward, no potential habitat restoration project holds more promise than reconnecting the natural flow of the Ocklawaha River, which would provide manatees with essential warm-water habitat in the river’s 20 “lost springs” and by providing unimpeded access to the Silver River and Silver Springs. The Rodman Reservoir, an artificial lake created by flooding from the dam, “drowns” the Ocklawaha’s springs and is too cold in the winter to serve as viable winter habitat for manatees.
Ocklawaha restoration came extremely close this legislative session; the House bill (HB 981) passed its floor vote overwhelmingly, 107-3, but the Senate version (SB 1066) was never scheduled for a floor vote, despite near-unanimous committee support. With the importance of this river system to manatees and native fishes, advocates remain committed to restoration.
With all manatees do for us, they deserve these acts of care and more. Critically, actions to protect manatees and their habitat protect people as well; we all depend on the same natural environment. Let’s take care of it together.
Elizabeth Neville is director of environmental law and policy for the Save the Manatee Club. This opinion piece was originally published by the Orlando Sentinel, which is a media partner of The Invading Sea. Banner photo: A manatee underwater (iStock image).
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