Lettuce might be on the menu once more this yr for Florida manatees as a part of an effort to slow the starvation deaths of the beloved marine mammals, wildlife officers mentioned Wednesday.
Plans are already in place to resume an experimental feeding program at a warm-water energy plant close to Cape Canaveral. Last yr, about 202,000 kilos of lettuce was fed to manatees that collect there by the 1000’s when the climate turns colder.
The higher aim is to cut back air pollution from agriculture, city and sewage sources that has triggered a die-off within the seagrass beds manatees rely upon for meals. One water administration district discovered that there was a 75% drop in seagrass within the crucial Indian River Lagoon since 2009.
“It worked really well last year. We will continue at that site,” mentioned Ron Mezich of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “We hope this is never a permanent situation. We don’t want to have to feed wild populations.”
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The feeding program was launched final winter after a report 1,100 manatees died in 2021, largely from starvation but in addition from collisions with boats. This yr, via Nov. 4, 735 manatee deaths had been recorded, state statistics present.
Manatees are light round-tailed giants, generally often known as sea cows, that weigh as a lot as 1,200 kilos and might stay so long as 65 years. Manatees are Florida’s official state marine mammal however are listed as a threatened species.
Although the starvation deaths are of nice concern, Mezich mentioned manatees should not in peril of extinction in Florida.
Manatees in different elements of Florida should not in peril from lack of meals and don’t want the romaine and butterleaf lettuce the state will present on the state’s east coast, officers mentioned.
A manatee floats within the heat water of a Florida Power & Light discharge canal, on Jan. 31, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
The precise date for the feeding program to start hasn’t been set however it can doubtless occur in December.
Meanwhile, manatees affected by power malnutrition proceed to be rescued and rehabilitated at services across the nation, together with SeaWorld Orlando, zoos and different aquariums, mentioned Terri Calleson, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She mentioned about 80 are at the moment being cared for in these locations, together with some orphaned calves.
“It is still way higher than we were five years ago,” Calleson mentioned. “We are already having emaciated manatees coming in.”
The long-term answer is enhancing water high quality in order that algae blooms and different pollution-related problems do not kill the seagrass on which manatees rely, mentioned FWC manatee program spokesman Tom Reinert.
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Although water high quality has improved alongside the state’s east coast and a few seagrass is once more rising naturally, it can take nursery-grown seagrass to restore the manatee meals to acceptable ranges, he mentioned.
“It’s still going to take a number of years,” Reinert mentioned.