Lawmakers Line Up To Save The Manatees

SARASOTA, FL — A bipartisan coalition of some of Florida’s heaviest-hitting names in Congress has come together to demand the U.S. Department of the Interior rethink the recent decision to downgrade federal protections for manatees from endangered to threatened. Citing recent spikes in manatee deaths and concerns that state and local protections will begin to slip, Sunshine State representatives on both sides of the aisle fired off a letter to Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday.

“This decision was disappointing and potentially very harmful to the survival of the iconic Florida animal,” reads the letter, signed by such U.S. Representatives as Republican Vern Buchanan and former Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Get the Patch newsletter and alerts in your inbox.

The decision to downgrade manatees from endangered to threatened was announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in late March. The downgrading leaves many protections in place, but the 11 signers of the letter to Zinke say those protections aren’t assurance enough.

“Despite the agency’s assertion that a downsizing from endangered to threatened would not affect federal protections for the manatee, the move could cause a broader reassessment of critical state and local protections for the animals,” the 11 congressmen assert.

Helping make the case, the officials pointed to Florida’s Brevard County, where commissioners have already adopted a resolution that asks the Florida Legislature to review slow-speed boating zones. The same commission has also asked for a reconsideration of Florida’s Manatee Sanctuary Act, which creates protections for critical manatee habitats in places like Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Brevard County’s requests came even before the federal government reclassified protections for manatees. Commissioner Curt Smith said the current act is “archaic,” according to Florida Today.

“The manatee rules get in the way of good science,” Smith was quoted by the paper as saying. Brevard County Commissioners want a study to be undertaken to determine if speed zones actually work to protect manatees.

That, according to the 11 letter signers, creates a slippery slope that the manatee population can ill afford.

“The manatee at one time was on the brink of extinction,” the letter reads. “We cannot support any action that would lead to such conditions again.”

A joint study undertaken by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute related to the state’s manatee population was released earlier this week. The study’s authors concluded it was “highly likely” Florida’s manatee population would endure for at least the next 100 years with a possible doubling of numbers in the next 50. Researchers, however, placed some caveats on those assertions.

“Today, the Florida manatees’ numbers are high,” said Michael C. Runge, a research ecologist with USGS and the lead author of the study. “Adult manatees’ longevity is good, and the state has available habitat to support a population that is continuing to grow.”

Evidence of that growth in population came during the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s annual aerial survey, which was conducted earlier this year. The agency reported in February that 6,620 manatees had been counted in its 2017 annual survey of sea cows in Sunshine State waters. That number was up from 6,250 in 2016.

The increase in population is a positive sign, but “new threats could emerge, or existing threats could interact in unexpected ways,” Runge said. “Managers need to remain vigilant to keep manatee populations viable over the long haul.”

The two biggest threats to Florida’s manatee population, researchers say, are longstanding ones: collisions with watercraft and the loss of warm-water habitats for winter refuge. Red tide is also predicted to “become an equally significant threat,” a media release about the study noted.

Researchers involved in the study conducted scenario tests “to see whether they could find a set of circumstances that would trigger a significant statewide decline in the manatee population,” the release noted. Some of the scenarios were likely, some not.

“If the rate of mortality from watercraft collisions were to double, the population’s resilience would be compromised,” said Runge.

FWC reported 520 manatee deaths in its 2016 annual report. More than 100 of those deaths were attributed to boats and other watercraft.

How soon, if at all, Zinke might respond to the coalition remains unclear.

Public opinion, the 11 signers noted, also seems to be in favor of reinstating endangered status. “During the public comment period for the downlisting rule, nearly 87,000 comments opposed the rule with only 72 comments in support,” the letter reads. “We urge you to overturn this decision and restore manatees to endangered status.”

The other signers of the letter were Kathy Castor, Alcee Hastings, Theodore Deutch, Val Demings, Stephanie Murphy, Charlie Crist, Darren Soto, Daniel Webster and Frederica Wilson.

Photo courtesy of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission