Manatee Deaths Spiked to 500 This Year Resulting in Declining Population; What’s Causing the Mysterious Fatalities?

A rescue mission has been launched recently in response to the record number of deaths of manatees which has already spiked to 575 this year.

As a Daily Star report specified, worried wildlife officials have launched the said mission in an initiative to help save manatees after reports of their mass deaths.

Indeed, hundreds of manatees have been reported dead which has ignited fears among wildlife officials following the mysterious fatalities.

Federal and state officials aim to double the rescue and rehabilitation capacity before the congregation of the sea cows in warm waters during winter.

Manatees Decreasing in Number

The manatees' deaths have primarily been linked to malnutrition, although more than 80 are presently being treated for starvation and injuries associated with crashes with boats.

Experts said middle of this week that conferences have been underway to discuss the need to accommodate rising numbers of ill manatees, in the years to come.

They also confirmed that they are still preparing equipment ahead of a heightened response when the mammals are making their "comeback," a News4Jax report said.

According to biologist Terri Calleson, from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 89 manatees are currently being cared for in facilities throughout the state. He said, he'd really lie to see, close to double that if they can muster that. Many of them rely on how crucial the condition of the animals is.

The biologist also said that one critical animal that needs around-the-clock care can really tie up an entire pool until that particular animal reaches a point where it is stable.

More Manatee Deaths in 2021

In 2021, the US Fish and Wildlife Service reported that more than 900 manatees had died in Florida, representing 20 percent of the population of the animal in the state.

The report came four years after the USFWS effectively declared that the manatee was on the way toward recovery and downlisted it from endangered to threatened, and this resulted in widespread opposition, specifically among experts.

They worried that such a proposal was based on an incomplete data analysis available at the time and effectively disregarded substantial die-offs in 2010 and 2013.

They pointed out too, that there was no discussion of climate change of how factors such as hurricanes, sea-level rise, and warm waters where hazardous algae blooms are flourishing, might impact manatee habitat.

The experts are afraid the habitat problems of the animal would worsen. USFWS recognized such concerns as reasons the manatee would stay threatened instead of declassified altogether and noted the animals could be recategorized again as endangered should there be a change in conditions.

Threats to Manatee Population

Yesterday, Science Times reported that the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List has listed the American manatee or Trichechus manatus, as a "vulnerable species" with only 10,000 individuals left.

According to the IUCN, commercial development, shipping lanes, watercraft strikes, and aquaculture are just among the factors that threaten the manatee population.

Other than that, some humans have captured manatees as well, to import them as pets much like hippopotamus during the 1980s, a trade introduced by Pablo Escobar, a drug trafficker.

Essentially, Manatees are among the world's most gigantic aquatic mammals, fulfilling irreplaceable ecological uses in sites where they are typically spotted.

Experts said these species help in keeping water channels and rivers become clear as they can devour a maximum of 50 kilograms of aquatic plants every day during seasonal migration.

If manatees turn extinct, water flow between swamps, rivers, as well as the sea will be substantially affected.

Related information about the manatee population is shown on WPTV News's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Endangered Species in Science Times.