Manatees

The downtick is expected: the peak of perinatal mortality normally coincides with calving season in late spring/summer, per the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

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 lawsuit came after a record 1,100 manatees died in 2021 in Florida, many because a lack of seagrass — a key food source — led to starvation. The most deaths, 358, were in Brevard County, which includes a large part of the Indian River Lagoon.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday announced a plan to more than double the critical habitat designated for manatees in Florida to 1.9 million acres. The revised Florida map adds Silver Springs, Tampa Bay and Withlacoochee Bay.

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.

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

More than half of Florida manatees rely on power plants to survive. That’s a problem for addressing climate change.

Manatees were among the first animals listed on the Endangered Species Act in 1973, when their population was estimated at 1,000. Now they’ve come to exemplify both the power of conservation and how tenuous its successes can feel.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission found the body of a manatee people called Asha in the St. Johns River on Jan. 12 after she died of cold stress.

Nearly 1,000 manatees gathered at Blue Spring State Park on one of the coldest winter days of the season. Here's why the growing number of manatees at the park is encouraging.

Wildlife officials say a two-year experimental feeding program for starving Florida manatees will not immediately resume this winter as conditions have improved for the threatened marine mammals and the seagrass on which they depend.

November is Manatee Awareness month. It's especially poignant for Lee County, which leads Florida with more than 100 sea cow deaths so far this year.