Manatee Deaths Dropped in 2022

From a record high the year before, manatee deaths dropped in 2022, but Florida wildlife officials worry that chronic starvation caused by water pollution will remain a major concern.

Preliminary statistics show 800 recorded manatee deaths last year in Florida, according to the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That compares with more than 1,100 in 2021. Both numbers are higher than the average annual deaths of the marine mammals.

The new numbers come as state and federal officials are feeding thousands of pounds of romaine lettuce to manatees at a warm-water power plant on the east coast of Florida in an effort to slow manatee starvation deaths. The threatened animals were fed more than 200,000 pounds of lettuce in the initial trial program last year.

The feeding program has helped some individual manatees, but the decline in deaths may also be attributed to the weaker and sicker animals perishing in the earlier months of the die-off.

About 30,000 pounds of lettuce, paid for through public and private donations, have been fed to manatees at the site on the Indian River Lagoon, near Cape Canaveral. Another 25,000 pounds is on its way as more manatees show up. There are between 7,000 and 8,000 manatees in Florida, according to state estimates. Also known as sea cows, they are close relatives of elephants and can live up to 65 years, but they reproduce slowly.

According to officials, the long-term key to manatee survival is restoration of the beds of seagrass on which they feed. Seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon that stretches for miles along the east coast has been decimated by water pollution from agriculture, septic tanks, urban runoff, and other sources.

Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced that $100 million of his proposed $3.5 billion budget for environmental funding would be used for priority projects to improve water quality in the lagoon, including reduction of harmful nutrients and more seagrass plantings. Money would also be set aside to continue current task forces to study harmful blue-green algae blooms and red tide outbreaks triggered by water pollution.

This money must be appropriated by the Legislature. S