Good news: Florida manatee deaths have fallen. But boaters still gotta slow down! | Opinion

Amid the sobering losses of Lolita and singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, two icons of Florida’s sun-and-fun image, comes encouraging news about a third — the friendly, goofy Florida manatee, our unique water cow.

Record-breaking numbers of manatees have died in Florida in the past two years. But data from a recently released report may indicate that the trend is slowing down this year — at least so far. There are four months left to count.

It’s still good news.

Less starvation deaths

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report, only 431 manatees died across Florida from Jan. 1 to Aug. 25, an average of 54 per month, still a concerning number.

We say “only” because the death toll for the entire previous year was 669 manatees, nearly two manatees per day.

“Let’s say so far it has been only a tough year after a string of horrible years, where the manatees were literally starving to death,” Patrick Rose, executive director of the non-profit Save the Manatee Club in Longwood, Florida, told the Editorial Board.

And in 2021, while we were in pandemic lockdown, 928 manatees were killed, bringing the five-year average of manatee deaths to 597.

The tide is turning, but Buffett’s death was among the sad news this year. He had been the original co-chairman of the Save the Manatee Committee, which eventually became the Save the Manatee Club, said Rose, an aquatic biologist considered the foremost manatee expert.

What kills manatees

So why are manatees still dying in such relatively high numbers?

Three things: Lack of food, because of dying seagrass along the Indian River Lagoon; red-tide blooms; and the mammals’ mortal enemy — boaters.

In recent years, the unprecedented manatee mortality rate was linked to starvation during the colder months when manatees migrated to and through the Indian River Lagoon, where most seagrass had been dying off in the popular habitat central to manatee migration. Thankfully, some of it has come back, said Rose.

Red-tide blooms poison the algae, which ravage fish and also take manatees. The red-tide bloom killed 85 manatees in southwest Florida in March, according to the FWCC.

This year, far fewer deaths have been attributed to starvation, according to the FWCC.

However, we are the biggest killers of manatees — at least those of us with motor boats and who ignore manatee zones, speeding and colliding with manatees, slicing their backs with propellers.

Seventy-two manatee deaths so far in 2023 were linked to watercraft. Florida boaters, we can do better.

“What the data show is that watercraft collisions remain the most significant cause of death statewide over the years, whether the number of total deaths goes up or down year-to-year,” said Martine de Wit, a veterinarian with the FWCC.

In this respect, Miami-Dade boaters must be praised. According to FWCC, 10 manatees have been killed in Broward and 13 in Monroe. Nine died in Miami-Dde, the lowest number, but still too many.

We can do better.

To learn more about Florida manatees, go to savethemanateeclub. org, which is currently dedicated to the memory of Jimmy Buffett.

This story was originally published September 9, 2023 at 3:04 PM.