After thousands of manatees died in Florida in recent years, federal wildlife officials announced Wednesday they are launching a new scientific review to determine whether the animals should be reclassified as endangered. .
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will collect data on manatees in the coming months to determine whether the West Indian manatee should receive increased protections under the federal Endangered Species Act.
In 2017, federal wildlife officials downgraded the manatee to “threatened species,” but officials said the decision was based on improving population numbers. Many environmental advocates have criticized the decision as premature, especially after 1,100 animals died in 2021 due to human-induced seagrass starvation.
This week’s announcement comes after a coalition of environmental groups called on the federal government in November to start back at square one after the manatee extinction occurred in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon, a 256-mile estuary on the Atlantic coast. This followed a petition to go back and reconsider the classification of the species. In recent decades, the country has been plagued by nutrient pollution.
Last year, a manatee was photographed swimming in Kings Bay.
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A combination of human influences, including wastewater discharge, fertilizer-laden rainwater runoff, and leaky septic tanks, are accelerating pollution and increasing algae blooms in the Indian River Lagoon. These flowers block the sunlight that seagrasses need to survive and thrive. As the seagrass dried up, the manatees languished and languished for months before starving.
“This discovery by the Fish and Wildlife Service is an important step on the road to manatee recovery,” said Ben Rankin, who helped author the petition while at Harvard University’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic.
“Scientists have documented overwhelming threats to manatees in recent years, and it’s encouraging that governments are taking action,” Rankin said in a prepared statement.
Advocacy groups petitioning the Wildlife Conservation Service cited widespread seagrass loss in the Indian River Lagoon and throughout Florida as the reason manatees should be considered an endangered species again. According to the St. Johns River Water Management District, between 2009 and 2021, 75% of the lagoon’s seagrass was lost.
Seagrass declines aren’t limited to Florida’s East Coast, with Tampa Bay experiencing a 12% loss of seagrass over the past two years, state water managers found in a study earlier this year.
A cormorant swims over a thick layer of seagrass off the coast of Tierra Verde near Shell Key Preserve in Pinellas County on June 29, 2022.
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“We recognize the need to reevaluate the Fish and Wildlife Service’s ill-timed decision to delist the Florida manatee,” said Patrick Rose, aquatic biologist and executive director of the Save the Manatee Club. I’m happy about that,” he said.
“There is no question that the department needs to immediately rebuild its manatee recovery program through increased staffing and funding,” Rose said in a prepared statement.
Rose’s organization launched the petition in November with the Center for Biological Diversity, Harvard University’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic, the Miami Water Administrator, and Puerto Rican engineer Frank S. González García.
Federal wildlife officials are already reviewing what they call “critical habitat” for manatees in Florida, habitat essential to the imperiled species’ recovery.
Under federal law, the Wildlife Service is supposed to make a decision on manatee reclassification within 12 months of the initial filing of the petition. Ragan Whitlock, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said the conservation group expects a decision to be made later this winter.
At least 476 manatees have died across the state through early October of this year, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In contrast, the number of deaths will be 800 in 2022 and 1,100 in 2021.
Members of the Tampa Zoo’s Manatee Rescue Team prepare one of three orphaned female manatees to be transported to the Cincinnati Zoo for continued care early morning Nov. 5, 2022 in Tampa. There is.
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The Wildlife Conservation Authority has assured that future reviews will be robust.
“We are working to ensure we have the most up-to-date scientific information during this investigation to protect and recover this species,” said Mike Oetker, Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Director. he said in a prepared statement.
“Manatees were one of the first species listed under the predecessor to the Endangered Species Act of 1967, so the agency has a long history of working to save manatees from extinction.”