By April Day, Director of Publishing at Save the Water\u2122 | March 31, 2022<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s manatees made sailors dream of beautiful women. Now, however, people\u2019s pollution is killing manatees. In brief, people\u2019s pollution causes the manatees\u2019 natural food, mainly seagrass, to die. As a result, the manatees are starving. So people have stepped up and fed manatees. But at thousands of pounds of food daily, that help is probably coming to an end at the end of March<\/a>. <\/p>\n Experts estimate that there are only about 5,700 to 7,500 manatees in Florida. Last year, over 1,100 manatees died<\/a>. Two key factors contribute to these deaths: cold weather and starvation. This article focuses on the manatees\u2019 starvation.<\/p>\n Manatees eat seagrass. They depend on it as their main source of food. But decades of agricultural and development pollution have killed off large areas of seagrass. The years of food shortages have come one after another. This year, until the first half of March alone, about 420 manatees died<\/a>.<\/p>\n Although, under normal circumstances, officials outlaw people feeding manatees, this year and last year proved not to be normal. As a result, wildlife officials have been feeding the manatees fresh lettuce and cabbage because the animals are starving. To try to make sure manatees don\u2019t associate humans with food, the humans hide when they throw the food. In this way, they hope that manatees will survive in the wild in the long term. <\/p>\n In addition to feeding manatees, humans are also rescuing manatees<\/a> that need medical attention. Motor boats, hunger, and pneumonia all threaten and hurt manatees. Humans care for these hurt manatees in rehabilitation sites across the United States. Manatees have long memories. Therefore, humans try to release the manatees in their traditional homes if and when the manatees recover and become healthy. If humans can\u2019t release the manatees into their homes because there\u2019s no more food there, humans try to release the manatees where there\u2019s food in the wild for them. <\/p>\n While making sure that manatees don\u2019t die out right now is important, other humans are taking a longer view. A coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the United States Wildlife Service for failing to expand the areas called \u201ccritical habitats\u201d for manatees. This coalition hopes that the lawsuit will get the federal agency to revise regulations to expand the areas that are critical habitats for manatees, address pollution that causes harmful algal blooms<\/a>, and stop the ongoing loss of seagrass. <\/p>\n Here are ways that you can help: <\/p>\nManatees Are Dying<\/h2>\n
What Humans Did to Help the Manatees<\/h2>\n
Other Humans Are Trying to Help<\/h2>\n
What You Can Do to Help<\/h2>\n