- Cindy Lane | Sun
- Cindy Lane | Sun
- Cindy Lane | Sun
- Cindy Lane | Sun
- Cindy Lane | Sun
- Cindy Lane | Sun
- Cindy Lane | Sun
Manatees, or sea cows – actually relatives of the elephant – frequent waters around Anna Maria Island. They are a federally threatened species.
ANNA MARIA – While Sarasota Bay is healthier than it was in the 1970s and 1980s, it’s not as healthy as it was 15 years ago.
That little-known fact is a serious concern to Dave Tomasko, executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program.
“We are the only estuary program whose number one goal is to protect water clarity,” Tomasko said during the December meeting on the Island of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council. “People want to throw out the anchor on their boat, jump in the water and see their feet.”
Tomasko said there are three main reasons to worry about water quality in Sarasota Bay. One of them is quality of life, since people don’t like spending their time in murky water or covered in algae. Both locals and tourists choose this area because of optimal swimming and boating conditions. Tomasko stressed how much the quality of the water has to do with our economy.
“People pay a premium to live here,” Tomasko said. “If you want to have cheap waterfront communities, go to Merritt Island. You’ll pay a lot less per square foot than you will here or on Siesta Key or Longboat Key. The water is not good there.”
There are 20,000 jobs associated with the bay, he said, including not just the fishing industry, but service industry people like bartenders and servers, bayfront businesses and their owners and staff. The list goes on, he added, saying that water quality is a major factor in keeping these people employed.
“The final thing is Florida’s wildlife heritage. This is the worst year on record for manatee deaths in the state of Florida,” said Tomasko. “Over a thousand dead, and halfway through this year we were already in the worst year. The previous worst year was a red tide year in 2013.”
According to data gathered by Tomasko and the program, the reason for the manatee deaths is very simple; they’re starving to death. Decreased water quality has caused the seagrass meadows, which are the primary food source for manatees, to die off by at least 60% in the Indian River Lagoon. To help save the starving manatees, for the first time ever, the Estuary Program is going to pay people to feed them romaine lettuce. While Sarasota Bay has not reached that level, it has lost 22% of its seagrass and could be headed in that direction sooner than later.
The Piney Point wastewater spill last spring was cited as a major concern and may be doing more damage than just the red tide outbreak in 2021, he said, and the ripple effect could cause problems that the bay has yet to see.
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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has released the new 2021-22 manatee and sea turtle decals.
This year’s themes are “Go slow – Look out below!” to encourage safe boating around manatees, and “Protect Florida Sea Turtles,” depicting a leatherback sea turtle swimming among jellyfish.
The waterproof stickers are a fun way to support research, rescue and management efforts that conserve the protected species and spread awareness about the challenges they face.
The decals are available for a $5 donation online at MyFWC.com/Manatee and MyFWC.com/SeaTurtle, or when registering or re-registering a vehicle or boat at local tax collector’s offices across the state. You can also order past editions of decals.
MANATEE COUNTY – By July 2 – halfway into 2021 – 841 manatees had died in Florida waters, more than in each of the two worst years in Florida’s history.
In 2018, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) reported 824 manatee deaths; in 2013, a record 830 deaths.
This year’s dismal record is primarily due to the loss of seagrass on the east coast of Florida’s inland waterways, according to the FWC, which, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), has declared it an “Unusual Mortality Event,” prompting an ongoing investigation.
With red tide in Tampa Bay and other local waterways, thought to be fed by the discharge of 215 million gallons of nutrient-laden wastewater from the Piney Point phosphate plant this spring, manatees on the west coast also appear to be in danger. In Manatee County, 10 manatees died in the first half of this year, three from boat strikes.
Boats strikes caused 63 of this year’s deaths statewide. In its most recent report, the FWC notes that “The recurrence of watercraft-related mortality as the leading cause of death in manatees necropsied in the Atlantic region in June, consistent with similar observations on the Gulf coast, underscores the need for previously identified threats such as watercraft-related mortality to continue to be recognized as a concern for the population.”
Four years ago, the USFWS downlisted the West Indian manatee, including its subspecies, the Florida manatee, from the “endangered” species list to a “threatened” species status. The FWC’s state imperiled species list mirrors the USFWS’s federal imperiled species list for several species, including manatees.
Protected as endangered since 1967 under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the manatee “no longer meets the Act’s definition of endangered and should be reclassified as threatened,” according to the 2017 USFWS declaration.
The ESA defines an endangered species as being “in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range,” while a threatened species is “likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.”
The downlisting came after the Pacific Legal Foundation, on behalf of recreational boating group Save Crystal River Inc., petitioned the wildlife service, saying the safety measures addressing the manatee’s endangered level of protection were bad for tourism and boating businesses.
Among the opponents of the downlisting was Dr. Katie Tripp, of the Save the Manatee Club, who wrote a 27-page letter to the USFWS on the reclassification.
“A downlisting to ‘threatened’ is premature and would substantially interfere with, if not outright prevent, the recovery of the species,” she wrote. “If all of the risks and threats to the manatees are taken into account, the only possible conclusion under the law is to maintain the West Indian Manatee’s status as ‘endangered.’ ”
Another opponent was Glenn Compton, director of the local environmental group ManaSota-88, who questioned the state’s consistency in counting manatees from the air, sometimes with one aircraft and sometimes with more; sometimes over one day and sometimes over more than one day.
“The methodology they use from year to year should be consistent,” Compton told The Sun in 2017. “Using different days on different counts is like comparing apples to oranges.”
In 2019, the FWC counted 5,733 manatees in state waters. This year’s survey was not conducted due to safety precautions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and last year’s was not conducted due to warmer than average winter weather. Manatees congregate in cold weather, making them easier to count from the air.
Population accuracy aside, “The biggest factor is loss of habitat due to development and increased boating with the state’s increasing population. Whatever gains are purported to occur, I would expect to see that go the other way in the future,” he said prophetically.
In a move to recognize the manatee as endangered once again, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Manatee) has called on the USFWS to upgrade the manatee from “threatened” status to “endangered.”
“Manatees are beloved, iconic mammals in Florida,” Buchanan said in a press release. “We should provide these gentle giants with the highest levels of federal protection.”
“When a species becomes extinct, it is lost forever,” he said. “We cannot afford to let that happen to these iconic residents of Florida and the state’s official marine mammal.”
In a letter to the wildlife service, Buchanan wrote, “There is a broad consensus among marine biologists and conservationists that the driving force behind the rapidly growing death rate is the degradation of the water quality in manatee habitats, growing levels of water pollution and an increase of harmful algal blooms that kill off seagrass. As seagrass disappears, manatees starve to death. Wildlife observers noted earlier this year that many of the dead manatees washing up on the shores were seriously emaciated.”
Former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham, co-founder in 1981 with singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett of the Save the Manatee Club, supports uplisting in a letter on the organization’s website.
“The tragic loss of nearly 600 manatees statewide in fewer than three months in 2021 must be a wake-up call to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which dropped the ball when they listened to anti-manatee groups like the Pacific Legal Foundation and prematurely took manatees off the endangered species list over the objections of scientists and thousands of Americans who understood that the manatees’ future was not secure but in fact could get much worse. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should admit its mistake and relist the manatee as an endangered species,” he wrote.
“I, along with my dear friend Jimmy Buffett, urge President Joe Biden to demand that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies make protecting manatees and recovering seagrasses and other submerged aquatic vegetation a top priority in ensuring that our aquatic ecosystems are nursed back to health.
Graham also appealed to Gov. Ron DeSantis to make Florida’s Clean Waterways Act live up to its name… “and clean up the Indian River Lagoon and other Florida waterways before they too collapse under the demise of uncontrolled harmful algal blooms fueled by continued human-produced waste from unsustainable development.”
“The only way to reverse these devastating consequences of too much nutrient pollution is for citizens to demand that their local, state and federal leaders make cleaning up our waterways a top mutual priority,” he wrote. “Unless we stop the excess nutrient pollution from making its way into our bays, lagoons and rivers, our state will not be fit for man or manatee alike.”
I’ve been a resident of the Suncoast for 40 years. For 35 years of those years, I ran a contracting business and have seen firsthand the effects of harmful algae blooms on the environment and the economy. I have never been more concerned than I am today and fear we may be near a point of no return.
I believe that there is a real possibility that our coastal waters may be in the process of converting from a seagrass-based system with clean, vibrant waters to an algae-based system that supports very little life and creates milky green water.
This is an economic and environmental disaster in the making. We only have to look as far as The Indian River Lagoon on Florida’s east coast as a cautionary tale. Once one of the most vibrant ecosystems on Earth, manatees there are dying of starvation due to a lack of the seagrasses they graze on.
https://youtu.be/1kSCc_tddtc
I am no scientist, but I have been fishing and recreating on Sarasota Bay, Tampa Bay and Anna Maria Sound since I moved here in 1980, and can honestly say I fear for the future of our waters and the generations of future residents who will inherit the legacy of our inaction. I truly believe that this rises to the level of a “moral obligation.” I would encourage you to face this challenge. Let’s all work together to see that future generations have some of the same opportunities that we’ve had.
What can you do? Contact your elected officials (local and state) and demand action, write letters, attend commission meetings, join with groups like Suncoast Waterkeeper and Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, don’t fertilize during the rainy season, keep yard clippings from our waterways and encourage your neighbors and friends to speak out.
The sad truth is that if we are silent, we will reap the unfortunate rewards. I’m reminded of a quote by the American Cultural Anthropologist Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
The truth is that if we don’t, nobody will, and our children will inherit a world no one would wish for them. We can do this but only by acting, now, before it’s too late.
It’s been a tough couple of years for Florida manatees.
So far this year, 714 manatees have died, compared to 538 in 2017, out of about 6,000 estimated to live in Florida waters, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Red tide has been active in Gulf and inland waters in Southwest Florida since last October, killing 67 of the 714 manatees, with red tide suspected in the deaths of 121 others. Nine were found in Manatee County.
The red tide neurotoxin causes manatees to have seizures that can result in drowning. If rescued in time, most manatees can recover, so report a sick manatee (muscle twitches, lack of coordination, labored breathing, an inability to maintain body orientation) immediately to the FWC Hotline at 1-888-404-3922, or email Tip@MyFWC.com. Use VHF Channel 16 on a marine radio.
To survive, manatees in Florida waters also have to avoid eating red tide-poisoned seagrass, flee cold water, escape from people who climb on them and ride on their backs, and dodge boat propellers.
Last year, 107 manatees died from boat strikes in Florida last year, with 98 so far this year, according to the FWC.
Boats accidents prompted former Florida Gov. Bob Graham to make November Manatee Awareness Month in 1979.
As the official state marine mammals head from the Gulf of Mexico, rivers and bays to the warmer winter waters of springs, boaters should be careful to note speed zones that take effect in November.
Free shoreline property signs, boating banners, decals, waterway cards and educational posters are available at Save the Manatee Club.
Red tide is suspected of killing 41 dolphins in August in Southwest Florida, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It is the first “unusual mortality event” since the 2005-06 red tide killed about 190 dolphins in the region.
In July and August, 49 bottlenose dolphins have stranded in Southwest Florida, 48 of them dead, including one in Anna Maria Island waters, according to NOAA. Of the 10 carcasses necropsied, all had high levels of red tide toxin.
If you find a stranded, dead or sick dolphin, call NOAA’s emergency strandings number at 1-877-WHALE HELP (1-877-942-5343) or contact the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF Channel 16.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has documented 287 sea turtle deaths in Gulf of Mexico waters in Southwest Florida coast since the toxic red tide bloom began in October 2017.
135 sea turtles are reported dead in Manatee and Sarasota counties from July 20 through Aug. 31 due to red tide.
A dozen dead sea turtles have been found in Anna Maria Island waters, with two more in rehabilitation, according to Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring Director Suzi Fox.
At least 127 manatees have died during the red tide bloom that has plagued Southwest Florida since October 2017, and which reached Anna Maria Island on Aug. 3.
To date, 30 dead manatees tested positive for red tide, and red tide is suspected in 103 manatee deaths, according to the FWC.
Five manatee deaths have been recorded in Manatee County so far this year, none confirmed from red tide.
So far this year, 575 manatees have died in state waters, compared to 538 in all of 2017.
Seasonal manatee boating speed zones go into effect April 1.
Intended to protect the state’s official marine mammal, which is a threatened species, the zones require boaters and personal watercraft users to slow down to keep from striking manatees.
To ensure manatee safety, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and other law enforcement officers will be increasing patrols in the zones.
Warming weather increases manatee migration from their winter refuges into open water, including the Manatee River, Sarasota Bay, the Intracoastal Waterway and the Gulf of Mexico near Anna Maria Island.
In addition to obeying signs that define permitted boat speeds in manatee zones, boaters and operators of personal watercraft can help manatees survive by following these tips:
Boaters and others who find sick or injured manatees should report the animal and its location to the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922 or dial #FWC or *FWC on a cellphone.
Manatee zones and maps are available at MyFWC.com/Manatee, where you can select “Protection Zones” for links to county maps.
Boaters can get more tips from “A boater’s guide to living with Florida Manatees.”
To support the FWC’s manatee research, rescue and management efforts, purchase a “Save the Manatee” Florida license plate at BuyaPlate.com, or donate $5 to receive an FWC manatee decal by going to MyFWC.com/Manatee and clicking on “Decals.”
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Volunteers rescued this Manatee in Sarasota Bay after it was stranded by a severely receding tide that preceded Hurricane Irma.
BRADENTON – Manatee County’s official mascot, Snooty the manatee, drowned on Sunday, July 23, the day after his 69th birthday party at the Parker Aquarium at the South Florida Museum.
The air-breathing marine mammal apparently swam through an open access panel that is normally bolted shut at all four corners and became trapped in a small area used to access the aquarium’s life support system equipment, according to museum officials.
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In-Depth Reporting
2018
The 30-inch by 30-inch panel is on an aquarium wall underneath a four-foot-deep ledge in the aquarium that was designed for Snooty’s comfort at the same depth as his original four-foot-deep pool, said Jeff Rodgers, museum provost and COO, at a press conference.
The panel is large enough for the museum’s three young rehabilitating manatees, which weigh around 500-600 pounds each, to get in and out, but at 1,300 pounds, Snooty “was not able to extract himself,” he said.
Snooty had an 89-inch girth, museum Communications Manager Jessica Schubick said, adding that manatees are generally unable to swim backwards.
Museum officials are still gathering and reviewing information as to how the panel opened, Rodgers said.
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In-Depth Reporting
2017
The panel was last opened five years ago, and was not opened more frequently because the system was working, museum CEO Brynne Anne Besio said, adding that the panel is visually inspected daily by divers in the tank.
Workers discovered that Snooty was missing at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Rodgers said. The aquarium is not monitored overnight.
“It took us some time to figure out exactly how we were going to deal with that situation, but when we finally did get to Snooty, he was no longer alive,” he said.
No foul play is suspected.
“Snooty’s death was a heartbreaking accident and the circumstances are being investigated so we can be sure we know the full details of what happened,” museum officials said in a press release. “We know that our community and Snooty fans around the world share our grief. We will keep you updated as memorial plans develop.”
Museum staff has experienced an outpouring of concern, love and memories of Snooty, Rodgers said. Grief counselors have been called in to work with staff.
Snooty was the oldest known living manatee, according to Guinness World Records.
Among his many life achievements are participating in research experiments on manatee hearing and communication, an appearance on Captain Kangaroo and making thousands of people happy.
He was born in captivity on July 21,1948 at the Miami Aquarium Tackle Company, located on the Prinz Valdemar, a former Danish warship that had capsized in Miami harbor in 1926 and became a floating restaurant and aquarium.
Baby Snoots, as he was known then, came to Bradenton in 1949 for the DeSoto Celebration and lived in a pool exhibit at the downtown pier, now home to the Pier 22 restaurant.
He moved in 1966 to the South Florida Museum and was relocated to the new museum in 1993.
Snooty hosted 33 rehabilitating manatees beginning in 1998, when the Parker Manatee Aquarium joined the Manatee Rehabilitation Network.
In 2013, more than 6,000 guests visited the museum for his 65th birthday – the largest crowd the museum had ever seen.
Related coverage
Museum investigates Snooty’s death
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has issued its final rule to downgrade the status of the West Indian manatee from endangered to threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The rule affects both the Florida and Antillean subspecies and was pursued despite strong scientific and legal evidence that shows the downlisting of manatees is not warranted at this time. It is important to stress that the FWS’s reclassification decision was not supported by any of the Scientific Peer Reviewers who were asked to formally comment on the proposal that now leaves manatees and their habitat exposed to attacks and could ultimately preclude the species’ recovery.
Save the Manatee Club is opposed to this unwarranted and unjustified action. We continue to strive for the full recovery of the manatee population throughout its range and will look forward to celebrating such a time when manatees are no longer in danger of extinction or in need of the vital protections afforded by the Endangered Species Act. This is not the time.
Sadly, we can’t accept a decision to prematurely reclassify manatees that places manatees in even greater peril when neither the science nor the law presently support reclassification. Therefore, it is imperative that we take immediate prudent measures to compel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to comply with the intent of the Endangered Species Act as written. Ultimately, the very fate and purpose of the Endangered Species Act itself is being placed at risk should this action be allowed to prevail.
Please watch for future updates on this issue and, above all, stay active in the fight to protect manatees and their aquatic habitat. We greatly appreciate your continued help and support.
For the manatees,
Patrick M. Rose, CPM,
Aquatic Biologist,
Executive Director
About 9 percent of the state’s 6,250 manatees counted in the 2016 survey died last year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Statewide, 509 manatees died, up from 405 manatees in 2015, including 102 from watercraft collisions, up from 87 in 2015.
In their namesake Manatee County, four manatees were killed in watercraft collisions in 2016. The four are among the 15 manatees that died in the county last year, one more than in the previous year, according to the mortality report covering Jan.1 to Dec. 31, 2016.
Six manatee deaths in the county were listed as natural, including two red tide deaths in Palma Sola Bay in October and November, two undetermined, two perinatal and one cold stress death, according to the report.
The FWC advises boaters and personal watercraft operators to slow down near shore; speed reductions are mandatory in manatee zones.
If you see an injured, dead, tagged or orphaned manatee, or a manatee being harassed, call the FWC at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922) or #FWC or *FWC on your mobile phone, use VHF Channel 16 on your marine radio, or send a text message to Tip@MyFWC.com.
For more information, click here.
There is a good reason for the Manatee River’s name – manatees live there.
So do sea turtles – one laid a nest at DeSoto National Park recently. So do dolphins, and other animals that don’t get all the press focused on endangered and threatened marine mammals and turtles.
“Respect the manatee’s river” expressed concerns over the course chosen for a power boat race in the Manatee River. The route was scheduled to cut directly through an area where manatees mate. After the column was published, the course was altered to avoid the area. Judges commented: “This column dealt with a hot local subject and offered alternatives and solutions.”
Running a 125-mile-an-hour powerboat race through a natural habitat, an idea initiated by county tourism officials and preliminarily approved by the Bradenton City Council, is the worst idea ever, and prompts many questions.
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Serious column
Sally Latham Memorial Award
2014
How do county tourism promoters reconcile touting the area as an eco-friendly destination, with Snooty at the museum and manatee-spotting kayak rentals and dolphin-spotting sunset boat tours, at the same time that they’re planning an event that will unquestionably disrupt, and possibly injure or kill, endangered manatees and other wildlife in the Manatee River?
Will they suspend the manatee zone laws in the river for the race? Both banks of the river are slow speed zones. How can we expect recreational boaters to abide by the manatee laws when the laws are ignored for a claimed $8-10 million economic boost?
Manatees cannot outswim a boat going 125 miles an hour, or even 25 miles an hour. If observers are stationed to watch for them, will they have the authority to call the race off if they spot a manatee? How long would it take them to get the message to the boats? How long would it take for the boats to come to a stop from full speed?
Only 4,831 manatees were spotted from the air in the waters of Florida during the most recent aerial survey this year. In Florida, 829 manatees died in 2013, more than in any of the past 40 years, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Of those, 72 were from boat strikes. In Manatee County, three died from boat strikes.
None of the boats were going 125 miles an hour.
Bradenton City Councilman Gene Gallo has said the manatees are at the Tampa Electric power plant warm water outflow in Apollo Beach in January, when the race is planned.
That’s not necessarily so, according to Save the Manatee Club’s director of science and conservation, Katie Tripp, who says that if January turns out to be warm, which often happens, manatees will still be in the river.
Aerial surveys of the Manatee River show manatees in the river in January and February, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) maps. The agency can issue a permit for a boat race on certain conditions, if the county’s ordinances allow it and “upon a showing of justification of need by the applicant and a finding by FWC that issuance is not likely to create a serious threat to manatees,” according to FWC rules. Conditions can be placed on the permits, including aerial and water surveying of the race area before and during the race to ensure that no manatees are present, use of manatee observers at strategic points to look for manatees during all race-related activities and limitations on the number of vessels.
Permits must also be acquired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies, but that may not pose much of a problem, she said, adding that the club unsuccessfully opposed a similar race in Stuart.
“It’s clearly an important manatee area,” she says. “There’s no good reason to do this inshore.”
So many questions should be asked and answered by local officials before considering approval of this proposal.
Why not run the race offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, where manatees are less likely to be?
Why not be consistent with the county’s ecotourism message and plan a kayak race in the Manatee River?
Why not apply common sense to a tourism promotion planned for an already overcrowded time of year that could kill manatees that are advertised to attract tourists?
Why not?
