Guest Opinion: Manatees’ future is far from certain
On Jan. 7, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced plans to downlist all West Indian manatees from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Given the political inconveniences of manatee protection in the U.S., the move to downlist Florida manatees was expected. The decision to include the whole species is surprising, since there are about as many manatees in the entire rest of the range (Greater Antilles, Mexico, Central America, and South America) as there are in Florida, and “population trends are declining or unknown in 84 percent of the countries where manatees are found,” according to the Service.
The Service’s announcement came at an interesting time in Florida. In December, Florida’s human population surpassed 20 million, a seagrass die-off affecting 40,000 acres in Florida Bay made the news, and the National Marine Manufacturers Association reported that boat sales could increase 8 percent in 2016, reaching pre-recession levels. Red tide blooms on Florida’s west coast began in the fall and claimed manatee lives in the final weeks of 2015 and continue in 2016. When questioned whether the model used for the U.S. manatee population included record mortality events from 2010 and 2013, the Service indicated that analysis was incomplete but they were moving forward based on available information.
The Service’s announcement that it believes the risks and threats to manatees are pretty well under control indicates that they’re satisfied with the status quo that leaves manatees dying of boat strikes, poisoned by red tide exposure, and facing loss of winter habitat. The 12-month finding states, “Within the southeastern United States, the potential loss of warm water at power plants and natural, warm-water springs used by wintering manatees is identified as a significant threat.”
The Core Biological Model, which weighed heavily in the decision-making, “predicts that it is unlikely (