florida joe
Well-Known Member
NAPLES — The largest manatee die-off ever recorded in Florida is playing out in the state’s backwaters and bays this winter.
Record cold weather is to blame for killing at least 193 of the endangered sea cows between Jan. 1 and March 5, including 17 in Lee County and 15 in Collier County, according to the most recent figures available from state manatee monitors.
The numbers are prompting manatee scientists to recalibrate their scale of natural devastation.
Until the mercury dropped and stayed there this winter, a Southwest Florida red tide in 1996 loomed as manatees’ most deadly single event, when a bloom of a toxic microscopic algae killed 149 manatees that winter and spring.
Now, spring seems to have sprung for chilled Southwest Florida humans, but manatees have yet to shake off the cold.
Manatee carcasses still are being recovered on a daily basis, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute senior research associate Martine De Wit said.
“I don’t expect these numbers to slow down any time soon,” she said.
The 193 manatee deaths probably are just the tip of the iceberg, scientists say.
Another 151 manatee deaths have been categorized as undetermined or their carcasses unrecovered, but most of them likely are cold weather related as well, De Wit said.
Manatee hospitals around the state are so busy caring for cold stressed manatees that Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is keeping manatees in its above-ground — and heated — pool.
In all, 368 manatees have died between Jan. 1 and March 5 — only 61 deaths short of the record 429 manatees that died in all of 2009.
“It’s a reminder and a call to action,” The Save the Manatee Club science and conservation director Katie Tripp said Monday.
As the weather warms, manatee advocates say keeping boat strikes to a minimum is that much more crucial this year.
The worry is that hungry manatees leaving warm water refuges for food will run up against antsy boaters eager to get outside, Tripp said.
Manatees likely are weakened and more vulnerable to boat strikes after making it through this winter’s record cold, Tripp said.
The magic number for manatees when it comes to water temperature is 68 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists say.
In some parts of the state, water temperatures flirted with the freezing mark this winter, said De Wit, at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, the science arm of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Water temperatures at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, between Naples and Marco Island at the western end of the Ten Thousand Islands, bottomed out at about 47 degrees in mid-January before bouncing between 60 and 70 degrees for most of February, spokeswoman Renee Wilson said.
Manatees are built to survive brief cold snaps by retreating to warm water refuges such as springs and power plant discharges.
But prolonged cold weather, like this winter, leaves manatees with a stark choice: stay warm or venture into life-threateningly cold water for food, De Wit said.
Necropsies are showing that many manatees didn’t make it back to warm water quickly enough and died from “acute shock and drowned,” she said.
That is a different phenomenon than cold stress, a more chronic condition that leaves manatees susceptible to infection, she said.
“It will basically shut them down,” De Wit said.
With all those manatees hunkered down at warm water refuges, manatee counters tallied their biggest count ever this January.
Aerial surveys counted more than 5,000 manatees, some 1,200 more than the previous record.
It’s too early to say what sort of long-term impacts could come from 2010’s death streak, De Wit said.
“It’s definitely something that can be concerning,” she said.
Record cold weather is to blame for killing at least 193 of the endangered sea cows between Jan. 1 and March 5, including 17 in Lee County and 15 in Collier County, according to the most recent figures available from state manatee monitors.
The numbers are prompting manatee scientists to recalibrate their scale of natural devastation.
Until the mercury dropped and stayed there this winter, a Southwest Florida red tide in 1996 loomed as manatees’ most deadly single event, when a bloom of a toxic microscopic algae killed 149 manatees that winter and spring.
Now, spring seems to have sprung for chilled Southwest Florida humans, but manatees have yet to shake off the cold.
Manatee carcasses still are being recovered on a daily basis, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute senior research associate Martine De Wit said.
“I don’t expect these numbers to slow down any time soon,” she said.
The 193 manatee deaths probably are just the tip of the iceberg, scientists say.
Another 151 manatee deaths have been categorized as undetermined or their carcasses unrecovered, but most of them likely are cold weather related as well, De Wit said.
Manatee hospitals around the state are so busy caring for cold stressed manatees that Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is keeping manatees in its above-ground — and heated — pool.
In all, 368 manatees have died between Jan. 1 and March 5 — only 61 deaths short of the record 429 manatees that died in all of 2009.
“It’s a reminder and a call to action,” The Save the Manatee Club science and conservation director Katie Tripp said Monday.
As the weather warms, manatee advocates say keeping boat strikes to a minimum is that much more crucial this year.
The worry is that hungry manatees leaving warm water refuges for food will run up against antsy boaters eager to get outside, Tripp said.
Manatees likely are weakened and more vulnerable to boat strikes after making it through this winter’s record cold, Tripp said.
The magic number for manatees when it comes to water temperature is 68 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists say.
In some parts of the state, water temperatures flirted with the freezing mark this winter, said De Wit, at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, the science arm of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Water temperatures at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, between Naples and Marco Island at the western end of the Ten Thousand Islands, bottomed out at about 47 degrees in mid-January before bouncing between 60 and 70 degrees for most of February, spokeswoman Renee Wilson said.
Manatees are built to survive brief cold snaps by retreating to warm water refuges such as springs and power plant discharges.
But prolonged cold weather, like this winter, leaves manatees with a stark choice: stay warm or venture into life-threateningly cold water for food, De Wit said.
Necropsies are showing that many manatees didn’t make it back to warm water quickly enough and died from “acute shock and drowned,” she said.
That is a different phenomenon than cold stress, a more chronic condition that leaves manatees susceptible to infection, she said.
“It will basically shut them down,” De Wit said.
With all those manatees hunkered down at warm water refuges, manatee counters tallied their biggest count ever this January.
Aerial surveys counted more than 5,000 manatees, some 1,200 more than the previous record.
It’s too early to say what sort of long-term impacts could come from 2010’s death streak, De Wit said.
“It’s definitely something that can be concerning,” she said.
