Featured Image Credit: Keith Ramos via USFWS
By Alice Morris
Preliminary numbers from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission indicate that a record number of manatees have been killed by boats in 2016.
98 individuals are reported dead due to boat collisions as of December 2nd, a record number since the state began surveying manatee populations in 1974.
This number surpasses the previous record of 97 deaths in 2009.
The recent spike in human-related manatee deaths is concerning, especially as federal officials plan to reclassify the West Indian manatee from “endangered” to “threatened,” following an enormous comeback for these mammals in recent years.
Pat Quinn, Broward County’s manatee coordinator and senior natural resources specialist worries about how these trends will affect the population in the coming years. “You spend all this time and effort trying to bring a population back from the edge of extinction and then you break a record for mammal deaths” he said.
Spotters in Florida have counted 6,250 manatees this winter, a 187 increase over last year and nearly a 5,000 increase since the surveys began in 1991.
And while an increase in manatee deaths may be expected with an increase in population size, James Powell, executive director of Sea to Shore Alliance says that the spike in deaths is too sharp to be explained solely by population size.
“There are more manatees and you would expect more to be killed. But you would expect to see the trend going up gradually if that was the only reason. With a spike, you would think its caused by other reasons.”
Examinations of the manatee carcasses reveal that, of the 472 manatees that died in 2016, one in five of the deaths were caused by boat collisions. 111 manatees died from complications in their first year of life, 72 from natural causes, 19 from cold stress and 6 died from other human causes. 139 deaths were caused by unknown factors.
The rise in manatee deaths is no surprise to Katie Tripp, director of science and conservation for the Save the Manatee Club and a Port Orange resident, who pins the spike in deaths on an improved economy and lower fuel prices, which brings more boaters out on the water.
“The numbers kind of went down when boating went down and the economy wasn’t great. People weren’t boating as much.”
Tripp added that an increase in boaters doesn’t have to mean an increase in manatee deaths. “Regardless of how many manatees we have, this is still a cause of death- and a cause of injury- that can be reduced.”
Following review by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, law enforcement is updated every six months to determine if additional action is necessary to manage manatee deaths.
According to Carol Knox, a section leader in the FWC’s imperiled species management section, the agency will reevaluate the need for more enforcement once a final manatee death count is released in January.
The FWC has already announced plans to upgrade the waterway markers in three counties along the St. Johns River to replace old, faded, and outdated signs. The work is scheduled to start in January and should last about six weeks.
Here’s hoping 2017 is a better year for Florida’s manatees!