MANATEES

Because the population of manatees in Southwest Florida is still very vulnerable, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida is advocating against current attempts to downlist the Florida manatee under the Endangered Species Act

The manatees in Southwest Florida are Florida manatees, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee.

While the population of Florida manatees may be growing or stable in much of Florida, the population in Southwest Florida has historically been decreasing. Exacerbating the negative growth rate is the fact that the Florida manatee population is troubled with low genetic diversity.

Threats to Florida manatees only grow in number as development increases near manatee habitat, which may result in loss of important seagrass foraging areas, additional boat traffic, or reductions in habitats where they rest.

Another impact to manatees is lowered water quality from nutrient pollution and one source of nutrient pollution is fertilizer.

Boats are also a cause for concern; roughly one-quarter of manatee mortalities are caused by collisions with watercraft. Boats may also negatively impact underwater vegetation via physical damage, pollution, or the spread of invasive species.

Lee County is one of the most deadly counties to manatees from boat collisions.

One of the most critical issues to the manatee is related to the mismanagement of freshwater flow into manatee habitat within the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary. Manatees forage on underwater vegetation, including tapegrass, and tapegrass needs a particular level of freshwater and water conditions to survive.

Unfortunately, freshwater levels in the Caloosahatchee River are consistently too high or too low and this can drastically affect the manatees' food. If this is the case, manatees may have to travel away from warm water points or into potentially deadly boat traffic in order to find adequate food supplies, further threatening the species.