An annual count statewide has revealed that the number of manatees in Florida, whether dead or alive, is recovering.
According to preliminary results from the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 6,620 manatees have been recorded in Florida’s waters such as lagoons, springs, and canals. It was the third straight year that population estimates glowed.
The development comes 12 months after federal wildlife officials mulled the removal of the animal from the endangered species list.
How Are The Manatees Doing?
Performed by 15 observers, this year’s manatee count yielded positive numbers: 3,488 on the east coast and 3,132 on the west coast. In the previous year, observers counted 6,250 manatees and tallied 6,063 in 2015, the first time the count went beyond the 6,000 mark.
The number of manatee deaths also demonstrated an upward trend. In the latest survey, 520 manatees died, 104 of which through boats. The record in 2015 was 405.
Some experts, however, are not convinced that all is well for the creatures.
“We want manatees to be recovered. But I’m not going to celebrate some artificial victory,” said Katie Tripp, who sits as science and conservation director at Save the Manatee Club.
The aerial survey, for instance, revealed that manatees tended to huddle around waters being heated by power plants, as well as a similar upward trend in death rates. Their gathering near power plants emphasizes the need to preserve manatees’ natural homes in warm Florida springs, Tripp explained, with sometimes deadly cold snaps killing members of their group.
Potential Downlisting
Florida’s manatees shift inland during winter, and they were historically hunted for their meat and hide. They almost disappeared as the state saw an economic boom and snowbirds populated the warm waters they lived in.
The state government and conservation groups worked to revive its population, including setting up no-wake zones to protect the mammals. Through those efforts, manatees’ numbers surged to over 500 percent, prompting FWS officials to propose plans of downlisting them from endangered to threatened.
The proposal was published in the Federal Register Jan. 8 last year, with officials convinced that it represents conservation progress as well as recommits the agency to ensure long-term positive status for the manatees. A period of public comment ended April last year.
“The threat is still out there, and it’s not going away,” asserted Tripp, saying that more work in needed to safeguard the manatee's habitat and to altogether get it removed from the endangered list.
Other organizations such as Pacific Legal Foundation, however, believe a downlisting is in order, as required by the Endangered Species Act. The focus, according to attorney Christina Martin, should be on saving species that need most to be saved from disappearance.
The foundation has threatened legal action and hopes the Fish and Wildlife Service will adopt the rule change formally in the coming month.
Endangered species are defined as currently at risk of extinction through the entire or a significant part of their range. The designation comes with federal restrictions that protect the animals and seek to reverse their decline.
