Contributing Writer Tom Dawson
Manatees were in the news again in February. In Lee County alone 58 deaths were reported since January 1st. Of these deaths 12 were verified as cold stress, 3 by watercraft and the rest not autopsied. Across the state 35 of the 176 manatee deaths since the first of the year were recorded as being from cold stress.
Manatees are highly susceptible to cold temperatures. They require water temperatures above 68°F to survive prolonged cold weather. Cold induced stress can lead to organ failure and death, like frostbite in humans.
This is not the first time Florida recorded a large number of manatee deaths. According to reports from the National Weather Service, “January 2010 was the coldest 12-day period since at least 1940.” In Naples the average 12-day temperature of 48.8 degrees between January 2nd and January 13th is lowest on record for any 12- day period. In Tampa the low on January 11th was 25 degrees. One report said that in a period of 89-days 480 manatee deaths were reported.
Like any other news items some perspective is needed. In the early 1990’s the manatee population in Florida was estimated to be 1,267. At that time, they were put on the endangered species list. By 2017 the population had recovered enough to taken off the endangered list and downgraded to a threatened species.
Today it is estimated that there are somewhere between 8,350 and 11,730 manatees in Florida. This recovery was attributed to several protective measures mandated by Federal and State laws.
However, there is one issue that has not been resolved. Manatees are attached to warm water and in Florida that was historically the natural warm spring along the coast. As more people migrated to the state, development including the building coal fired powerplants along the coast. This provided the manatees new habitats for the winter months.
In the late 1990’s the coal fired powerplants started to switch to natural gas. The change meant the powerplants discharge water wasn’t as warm. In the winter months the cooling pond’s temperatures would drop below 68 degrees. Manatees that had become used to stay close to the powerplants were at risk of suffering from cold stress.
In 1999 a task force was created to study this problem. Scientists, state officials, and power company representatives met on and off for 8 years and the best they could come up with was to force the power companies to heat the discharge water and agree a better plan needed to be developed.
The task force disbanded in 2007 without any better recommendations. Then came the push for “clean” energy. Power companies responded by investing in wind and solar energy as environmentalist pushed for “net zero” emissions. It seems the manatee “problem” has become an afterthought as different groups push contradictory agendas.
Manatees also face another issue in many places in Florida. There is the increasing scarcity of food. In Lee County, the powerplant is over 25 miles away from the manatee’s main feeding grounds in the shallow waters of Pine Island Sound and Matlacha Pass. Manatees weigh between 800 to 1,200 pounds and eat 4-9% of the body weight every day. That is about 32 to 108 pounds seagrass per manatee.
During cold weather manatees face a choice try to stay warm up river or go searching for food. Each year the amount of seagrass in Lee County shrinks. Between the impacts of storms, pollution, and the abundance of boats in the area, seagrass beds are dying or being destroyed.
In the past FWC has responded with temporary feeding programs at the powerplants. However, this is not a sustainable solution.
Maintaining the current manatee population in Florida is not going to be easy. Environmental groups in Florida have been pushing for putting manatees back on the endangered species list.
This alone would not solve the issues manatees face and could lead to new mandates on the powerplants and added restrictions on boaters where manatees are found.
Hopefully, efforts to find ways to address these long-time issues will resume. In the meantime, as boaters, we need to do our part, watch for manatees in the water and stay clear of seagrass areas.
Stay safe on the water!
Thomas E. Dawson
Cape Coral, Florida
Thomas E. Dawson is a member of the Cape Coral Sail and Power Squadron. If you plan of visiting Lee County, Florida, Dawson is the author of two books about boating there, Safe Boating in Southwest Florida Cape Coral Edition and Barret Bonden’s Local Knowledge Recommended - Things You Wish Someone Had Told You About Boating Here! Both books are available on Amazon.
