Did you know that manatees love warm water? They do, they do! That’s why they tend to be found in warm water. It’s why they head up to warm springs when even Florida cools down in the winter. But, doom
Conservation advocates in Florida are warning that 1,000 manatees in the state’s water could die this year—hundreds more than in recent years—due to starvation driven by water pollution, the climate crisis, and other man-made harms to the mammals’ ecosystem.
As The Guardian reported Monday, 749 manatees died between January 1 and May 21, compared with 637 deaths in all of 2020, qualifying as an “unusual mortality event” according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Experts in the state point to the death of seagrass, manatees’ primary food source, including the majority of 80,000 acres of the plants in the Indian River Lagoon due to blue-green algae blooms—”which have themselves been caused by decades of human nutrient pollution from wastewater and runoff that continues unabated to this day,†Bob Graham, a former Democratic Florida governor and co-founder of Save the Manatee, wrote in the Tampa Bay Times last month.
Runoff containing fertilizers, microplastics, and other chemicals has been linked to the growth of blooms.
So, pretty much environmental issues, right? Plus, too many humans in their areas. But, of course
Warmer water temperatures linked to the climate crisis have also been known to foster the growth of algae, which cover the water’s surface and deprive sea grasses of sunlight. In response, manatees overgraze the remaining seagrass.
I’m pretty sure warming has occurred multiple times during the Holocene, some periods warmer than the current one. And manatees have survived, and survived during the last glacial age. Of course, there might not be those blooms without the runoff issues, so, we’re back to environmentalism, which the Cult of Climastrology has hijacked.
A study by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) in March also found traces of pesticides in more than 55% of the manatees the group tested.
But, climate crisis! Causing people to tune out. Sadly. Can we just deal with the real issues? The water quality in Florida has gone way down over the past decade.
Manatees should move to Jersey in the summer.
There are plenty of power plants in Florida, and they use surface water for cooling. If these maggots were really concerned about them, they would relocate the manatees to the waters near these plants, fence off a large area of the water around them, and have biologists regularly checking the health of each manatee and treating it if necessary. They will never do that, since their only aim is to destroy humans!!!
As someone who lives on the IRL, I can tell you with certainty the the manatees do not need to be relocated to the cooling water outputs from power plants.
The manatees go there naturally.
In the winter months, herds of manatees can be seen around the pipes.
The areas are also protected by no wake zones because of manatees getting sliced up by propellers from boats. Manatees are very slow swimmers and get killed by boats far too often.
But there are MANY manatees outside of those areas, where they are more likely to be sliced and diced. I stand by my comment that if the REALLYU cared about the manatees, they would relocate ALL of them there…
And those manatee go to other areas that are warm.
You can stand by your comment all you want. That doesn’t mean it is true or applicable.
Manatees each 7%-15% of their body weight a day. For the average adult manatee, that is 150 pounds of vegetation. The areas around water outlets on their own could not support such loads on the vegetation.
This was confirmed at a County hearing where experts from Florida’s Fish and Wildlife, Seaworld (which runs manatee rescue programs), and other manatee organizations testified that herding all the manatee together would be catastrophic and result in more deaths.
Even if one were to agree with you when the water temp is cold, manatees move away from the outlets when the water warms up.
Sorry to say this, but your comment defies reality and is unscientific.
No mention of obesity.
Hater. Do you have any idea how hard it is for Manatees to lose weight? Not to mention how hard it is to find healthy vegan alternatives in Florida? Florida is a desert. A food desert. Not a food dessert, which is exactly the opposite.
Manatees ARE vegetarians. And there is no shortage of plant life in the waters of Florida…
Yes. Manatees are indeed vegetarians. I thought that was obvious.
For added obvious benefit, Florida is neither a desert nor a dessert.
Teach,
I wasn’t going to respond to this post, but after reading the comments, I feel somewhat compelled do to so.
As you know, I live close enough to the IRL to spit in it. The IRL, manatees and health of the lagoon and wildlife are something everyone here is concerned with. I attend meetings and forums on the subject all the time.
Therefore, please allow me to comment on a couple of things.
Manatees are dying. There is little doubt of that and because they are such gentle giants, they are the poster children for the lagoon.
There are problems that deal with the health of the lagoon and that translates into health problems with the manatees.
1) Lawn waste. As the article notes, run off from lawns which include pesticides and fertilizers get into the lagoon. The pesticides help kill wildlife needed to the lagoon, and the fertilizers add to the problem of “muck” in the lagoon. Muck is dirt that just lays on the floor of the lagoon and does not allow growth of the seagrass which is vital for the lagoon.
Cities and counties banned commercial lawn companies from spraying fertilizers onto lawns. One would have thought that would have helped, but people just sprayed their lawns themselves. Groups concerned about the lagoon said that is what would happen, but local and county governments didn’t listen and instead just banned fertilizers being applied by commercial companies. Tests have shown that the ban has actually harmed the lagoon as more fertilizer is getting into the lagoon when it is put on by “amateurs” as opposed to licensed professionals.
In short, the respective governments made the problem worse, not better.
There is dredging going on in the IRL to “demuck” the bottom of the lagoon. The muck is taken from the bottom, put in barges, then taken to a lined pit which allows the muck to dry out, leaving the soil that can be used inland on farms as replenishment and even fertilizer. It’s an expensive and intense process though, and there is lots of infighting between towns and counties as to where the drying pits are located. So far, the dredging is having success, albeit it limited.
2) Septic systems. No city or county allows the installation of septic systems anymore. If your current system breaks, you must connect to city / county waste pipes. At this time, every county along the IRL is working with homeowners to dismantle septic systems that are close to the IRL and replace them with waste pipes. It’s a good plan.
3) The cities and counties did smoke tests on waste systems from homes to the waste collection pipes as “experts” were sure that homes with bad waste connections were one of the main causes of pollution into the IRL. They actually found the exact opposite. Homes were remarkably tight when it came to connections from the home to the waste collection system. Actually testing showed that instead of the predicted 10% – 20% of homes having bad plumbing, the number was closer to .04% of homes that had issues.
The main contributor of raw sewage was city and county maintained pipes. While the government was looking at private citizens as the culprits to waste getting into the lagoon, it was actually the failure of the government to maintain their pipes.
4) The result of the “tightening” of the system led to a predictable scenario that people warned government about, but were rebuffed. With the system tighter now, more waste would be coming into a treatment plants. Because of heavy storms and hurricanes, the treatment plants need to run nominally at less than 85% capacity. The “head room” allows for more water to be treated when storms / hurricanes to come through.
It took a court order to get the data from treatment plants, but the plants are now operating at an average of 93% – 95% of capacity. When storms hit, the plants of overwhelmed and shut down and the water / waste goes directly into the IRL.
The plants need more capacity, but cities and counties aren’t moving forward and even if they do, it is estimated by government planners that an increase in capacity (by either new plants or by expanding existing plants) would be 10 – 20 years down the road. This is due to regulations that have been passed by legislative bodies who did not have the foresight to see what would happen.
5) As mentioned, the government waste pipes are in such bad shape that large amounts of discharge regularly run into the lagoon. The discharge infuriates the people who through taxes paid to work to be done to maintain the pipes, but the work was not done, and when done, done incorrectly. One of the larger waste pipe projects fell apart after 2 years. Records indicate that the work was completed using sub-par materials that were not within the contract, but approved by workers in the government. The pipeline was never inspected and the records show that it was signed off by an inspector who had died ten years prior to the work being done. (In other words, the signature was forged and no one knows by who.)
6) The Florida legislature, in a moment of brilliance, passed a law that fines waste treatment facilities for every gallon of waste that is discharged into the lagoon. ($5.00 per gallon.) Discharges of hundreds of thousands of gallons are not uncommon, so the fines are huge. The problem is that the waste facilities can pass that fine directly onto the consumer. In short, the people are getting soaked by the government not maintaining the system and diverting funds elsewhere, and then soaked when the system fails and there are fines. The reaction from politicians is “oh well…..”
7) One of the things that has worked is oyster nets. Oysters are hung attached to a netting which is attached to dock on the water. The bi-valves are remarkably adept at cleaning up the water quality and data backs that up. Citizens volunteered to help make the nets as it is time consuming and labor intensive. Incredibly, local governments restricted volunteers to only those who actually live on the water – people that are mostly elderly. So instead of having an army of net makers, the number of people who were eligible to make the nets was restricted by the governments.
Finally, it is difficult to overestimate how much people in the area love manatees. People know where they are and will walk to see them in their natural habitat. For politicians and those in the government, manatees are cards to play – nothing more.
We’re from the government and we’re here to help.
#TrustUs
Bwaha! Lolgf
Gitar,
Thanks for providing the useful information. I’m sure I speak for everyone including Jeff, Zac, and John, that all real Americans love manatees. In my area, there has been a mostly positive multi-state campaign to clean the Chesapeake bay when conditions were harming the entire system that so many depend on for their livelihood and recreation-hood. It didn’t happen overnight and it wasn’t cheap. Everyone here now is very conscious of where runoff goes and most storm systems are designed to go into evaporative area and not into the bay. The Topography of Florida probably prevents that.
I would think that Florida has a massive interest in keeping it’s waterways clean even if it has to halt population growth (of people) to do it. It would be simple to just tell old people from NY and Jersey to “stay home”. Add to that turning around immigrants at the US border and you take a massive step to fixing the problem.
My last trip to Florida, decades ago, I was boating in a Manatee area and noticed the water was a dark brown color. Not like muddy, but like black coffee. I attributed that to the leaching of tanins from falling leaves. I recall in the early 70’s I visited Silver Springs and the water was crystal clear.
Anyway, There is only so much you can do if you allow population growth. The alternative is creating manatee preserves with Aquarium-style filtered water and very limited manatee populations, like the Chinese do with Pandas.
As you point out, real solutions come from people who care about finding solutions more than they care about using the problem to push their own agendas.
We do have a massive interest in keeping waterways clean. That is why private citizens are working on the problem despite interference from government and government workers.
Government does not want to give up control of the problem and therefore are in fact adding to it.
As I remember, the “Save the Bay” group for the Chesapeake Bay eventually got the government to let they run programs with governmental oversight rather than the government running the programs themselves. (I spent my early life fishing and crabbing in the Bay up there. I even remember William Donald Schaefer and the rebuilding of the Inner Harbor which cleaned up that area and the harbor itself. He was opposed by the City Council at every step because they wanted a piece of the pie.)
We all realize that cleanup of the IRL will be expensive. The citizens of the county passed a tax that raises over 3/4 a billion dollars over the next 10 years. There is more money than programs because the government cannot turn and pivot as fast as private industry.
If you remember, I mentioned the smoke test of waste pipes for homes? The government allocated money for the tests and money for remediation. When there was no need for as much money for the remediation, the money had to sit in that fund for the rest of the fiscal year instead of being used for the next projects. A private company would have said, “okay, we don’t need to spend this much, so lets go to the next program now.”
Legislators had that option and chose against it.
The IRL is a case where people want to do the right thing, but are thwarted by elected and non-elected officials.
On a related but different note, A friend of mine from New Zealand was telling me about their efforts to eradicate the population of stoats (English weasels). The logic goes that the non-native mammals are killing off the endangered native birds like the Kiwi. So the government (here to help) initiates a large scale program of dropping poison from airplanes. The poison is then consumed by dogs and cats and other native endangered species like the Kia, reputed to be the smartest species of parrot on the planet (for a little while longer maybe). Animal right activists and citizens complained to the government bitterly about the impacts of this program and were ignored. The government doesn’t care what citizens think. They know what is good for you.