Manatees

As Hurricane Milton approaches, Crystal River wildlife researchers and advocates are concerned about how a second hurricane in less than two weeks will further affect manatee habitat.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium is dealing with millions of dollars in damage after Hurricane Helene.

A federal judge this week refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Florida has violated the Endangered Species Act because of sewage discharges into the Indian River Lagoon that have helped lead to manatee deaths.

Injured and sick manatees have a new place to get better. A manatee rehabilitation center is now open at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

The higher perinatal total indicates manatee reproduction is likely bouncing back from 2021’s starvation event.

Manatees are still facing die-offs from a lack of seagrass they eat, collisions with boats and red tide. A new facility opening around the first week in June will help at least some of them survive.

The lawsuit would be the latest legal move intended to protect the threatened sea cows, whose numbers have been decimated in recent years.

Over 1,000 Florida manatees died in 2021. That number is the peak in the current unusual mortality event.

Nearly 2,000 manatees died in Florida in 2021 and 2022 as water pollution killed the seagrass they feed on. The manatee was downlisted in 2017 from endangered to threatened, over the objections of scientists, environmentalists and citizens.

Water quality and seagrass health play a big role in marine mammals’ survival anywhere in the state.

But manatees are still struggling throughout the state.

More than 2,000 of the gentle sea cows have died in Florida in the last two years, mainly from algae blooms that smothers the sea grasses they need to survive.