Florida’s Manatees Are Dying

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Florida’s Manatees Are Dying at an Alarming Rate

by Alex Fox/Smithsonianmag.com

Florida’s manatees are dying in droves. So far this year, a total of 782 manatees died between January 1 and June 4, according to a recent report from the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That’s more than ten percent of the docile marine mammal’s entire Florida population, which has come back from near extinction, reports Johnny Diaz for the New York Times.

Last year, Florida lost 637 manatees, a total that 2021 has well surpassed barely halfway through the year. At this rate, 2021 will likely see the highest level of manatee mortality since 2018 when 824 individuals were recorded dead.



“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, tells Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post. “I think it’s fair to call it a crisis. It’s not hyperbole when you see hundreds of manatees dying like this.”

Experts say the likely cause of the die off is starvation. The bulbous, slow-moving mammals need to eat large quantities of seagrass to survive and that critical food source has been virtually erased by years of pollution. This pollution comes primarily in the form of nutrient runoff from fertilizer as well as leaks from sewers and septic tanks. Read More:

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2 COMMENTS

  1. One problem is that the mermaids/mermen (unlike others) have no lobbee in Tallahassee.
    Floriduhh is ch@bad-Lik controlled from the PTA mtg’s up through his ecksellancy, DuhhSintax.
    How embarassing for everyone.

  2. Thank goodness that this wasn’t also added to the CO2 Alarmism narrative.
    We actually do have a nitrogen emission problem that we should be working on.
    Controlling biological fertilizer emissions would create many well paying jobs in the treatment of sewage and runoff from farms.
    We instead have this questionable anthropogenic climate industry soaking up our economy and our children’s minds, no offense intended.

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