Return manatees to endangered species list
The last time we wrote about Florida’s 2021 manatee die-off, the body count stood at 724.
That was in May.
This month that number surpassed 900, probably more than 10% of the state’s total estimated manatee population.
The death toll of 905 through Aug. 5 exceeds the deadliest year on record for sea cows — 830 in 2013 — and we still have nearly four months to go in 2021.
The state is calling it an “unusual mortality event.”
More like a catastrophe for one of Florida’s most beloved and unique creatures, an aquatic mammal whose numbers have been steadily rebounding for 30 years.
We know what’s killing them: Starvation.
This state’s longtime neglect of our waters is bearing some bitter fruit. Pollution has resulted in widespread and persistent algae blooms, which are clouding the water and killing the seagrass beds that manatees feed on, especially in the brackish waters of the Indian River Lagoon.
The solutions are long-term, but one immediate way to call attention to the crisis is to restore the manatee to the federal list of endangered species.
That’s what Florida Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan and Democratic Rep. Darren Soto are proposing to do.
“When a species becomes extinct, it is lost forever,” Buchanan said in a statement. “We cannot afford to let that happen to these iconic residents of Florida and the state’s official marine mammal.”
This is something every member of the House and Senate from Florida — regardless of political party — needs to get behind.
It was a mistake for the federal government to downlist manatees from endangered to threatened in 2017.
We opposed it at the time, arguing in an editorial that “Given the unrelenting pressure to develop coastal Florida, the next time manatees face extinction it could be too late to save them.”
But the federal government bowed to pressure brought by right-leaning groups that believe laws like the Endangered Species Act threaten private property rights.
One of those groups, the Pacific Legal Foundation, argued in a 2016 Sentinel Q&A, “Manatee activists fear that their habitat may one day be threatened, but many layers of regulation protect Florida waters, including local, state and federal regulations.”
That’s rich. All those “layers of regulation” to protect Florida waters are looking tissue-thin right now.
Seagrass beds in the Indian River Lagoon have collapsed, choked out by algae from the pollution that continues to spill and seep into waterways from wastewater plants and septic tanks and fertilizer-laden runoff.
Pat Rose, the longtime executive director of the Save the Manatee Club, was sounding the alarm back in February. Today, he believes about 20% of the nearly 4,000 manatees that comprise Florida’s East Coast population have died since late December.
Rose thinks that relisting manatees as federally endangered will create a greater imperative for Florida to stop dawdling and take steps it should have long ago, like getting septic tanks hooked up to sewer systems and upgrading those sewer plants so the water they’re releasing is much cleaner than it is now.
This is such a classic Florida problem: Scrambling to fix environmental problems rather than having the courage to prevent them in the first place.
We let developers build on sand dunes then spend millions replenishing beach sand that gets washed away in storms. We allow invasive plant and animal species into the state then spend a fortune trying to get rid of them. We let farmers grow crops in the Everglades then spend billions trying to clean up their dirty water.
Lawmakers like House Speaker Chris Sprowls talk about restoring manatee habitats, boasting in a news release that the state was willing to spend $8 million on it this year.
Nice sentiment, but that’s $8 million out of a $105 billion budget. More important, what good is restoring seagrass beds if we keep letting polluted water ruin them?
We have zero confidence that the current Legislature and governor are going to have a fit of courage and pass new environmental rules to crack down on polluters.
That’s why it’s so important for the federal government to get back in the game. Rose says that if Congress takes the initiative to make manatees an endangered species once again it’ll focus resources and money on Florida’s manatee crisis.
What’s happening to manatees now isn’t a one-off fluke, like a sudden and intense cold snap that results in a mass killing.
We’re witnessing the start of a longterm food shortage that’s only going to be resolved with cleaner water that will allow seagrasses to rebound.
Florida’s representatives to Congress, and our senators, need to join Buchanan and Soto to once again get manatees listed as endangered.
Before it’s too late.
Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of our members or a designee. The editorial board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Send emails to insight@orlandosentinel.com.