Florida officials urge boaters to watch for manatees this Memorial Day weekend as starving sea cows seek seagrass

Jim Waymer, Florida Today
·3 min read

State wildlife officials are urging boaters to remain alert over this Memorial Day weekend for manatees and heed go-slow boating zones amid signs the sea creatures may be finding enough seagrass to fend off an ongoing famine.

There are still concerns though. One seemingly starving sea cow was rescued Monday on Merritt Island. And officials said already stressed manatees will be searching the shallows for seagrass.

"We don't want to add any extra stress to that situation by not following that regulation," said Jon Wallace, joint unified command co-commander with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We want to keep everyone safe, manatees included."

Onlookers gather in the cold weather of a January 2021 morning to watch the gathering of manatees suffering cold stress who seek the warm water of the DeSoto Parkway canal in Satellite Beach. Seagrass has depleted so much in the Indian River Lagoon that this past winter Florida wildlife biologists had to hand feed manatees lettuce from the Florida Power & Light Co. Power plant.

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Biologists say pollution and excess nitrogen and phosphorus from runoff, seepage from septic tank systems, sewage spills, fertilizers and other human sources choked out the manatee's main diet — seagrass — by fueling excess algae growth.

Island outcroppings in Brevard became mass manatee graves, as Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists could not keep up with all the carcasses floating up.

The death toll grew so bad that in April of 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the die-off an Unusual Mortality Event.

It also prompted the first-of-its kind pilot project to try to stave off further starvation by feeding manatees, which state and federal biologists began doing at the FPL plant in mid December. From the effort's onset, the plan was to feed them through the end of March.

FWC's best efforts aside, death rates, presumably most from starvation, are still unacceptably high. Through May 13, a total of 551 manatees have died this year. Of those, 324 (59%) were found in Brevard County. Roughly a third of the state's manatee population is in Brevard at any given time, biologists say, because of the vast quantity and quality of seagrass habitat within the 72-mile long coastal county.

Last year was worse: 738 manatees had died in Florida by May 13, 2021.

While the death rate at first blush appears like an improvement, the number represents a big chunk from a dwindling population. Last year, the seagrass famine claimed an estimated 10% of Florida's manatee population.

At least 1,101 manatees died last year in Florida, most from starvation, including 358 (a third of them) in Brevard County.

Biologists hope they won't have to give manatees any more handouts but the question remains: Will manatees fed at the FPL power plant find enough seagrass elsewhere to sustain them? Or will they return to the power plant desperate for the hand-fed lettuce that got them through the winter for the first time in their imperiled natural history?

State biologists vowed to keep a close eye on that and to study what worked and didn't work. They also plan to watch the status of seagrass beds in the Indian River Lagoon, especially in Brevard.

"That's one of the data points we'll be looking at this summer," Ron Mezich, FWC's imperiled species management section leader, said Wednesday during an online update about the manatee die off. "What we're hearing is that there's still good coverage of macroalgae. Anything that's using nutrients other than algal blooms is a good thing."

There are some reports of seagrass growing in multiple areas in Brevard, Mezich added. "It is very small, and it is not very dense. We continue to hope that algae blooms do not occur and water quality stays good throughout the growing season," he said.

Wallace urged patience. "Restoring the Indian river Lagoon is going to be a process that's going to take years," he said. "Let's keep our eyes on the prize for Indian River restoration."

Jim Waymer is an environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at 321-261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Or find him on Twitter: @JWayEnviro or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.waymer

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida urges boaters to watch for manatees this Memorial Day weekend