It seems that efforts to restore the manatee population is beginning to pay off as a record number of manatees have been tallied in Florida's annual survey of endangered marine mammals, state wildlife officials said on Monday.
The record number of manatees totaled at 6,063, besting the previous record set in 2010 by about 1,000, but that doesn't mean the state's manatee population has brown by that much, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The state conducts aerial surveys each year, depending on the weather. Researchers currently have no way to determine the number of manatees that are not seen by the survey, meaning the tally is considered a minimum count of the Florida manatee population.
"The high count this year shows that our long-term conservation efforts are working," the commission's chairman, Richard Corbett says.
This year's survey was helped by clear and sunny weather that led manatees to bask at the surface as they crowded into warm waters, said commission biologist Holly Edwards. A team of 20 researchers from 11 different organizations counted 3,333 manatees on the east coast and 2,730 on the west coast. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing the population data to see if the rebound of the population is sufficient enough to warrant a reclassification from and endangered species to a threatened species.
Critics of the current boating and fishing regulations have petitioned the federal government to upgrade the animals status after a 2007 review found the population to be recovering.
"We're very pleased that the manatee population is growing," said Mark Miller, managing attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation's Atlantic Center, in Palm Beach Gardens. "This is an encouraging sign and something that the agency will have to consider as it reviews the status of the species, as requested by our petition."
Florida's manatee population has grown from several hundred in 1967 but conservationists say the animals remain vulnerable to boat collisions, cold snaps, water pollution and algae blooms. The state reported 371 manatee deaths just last year, but that figure was down from a record of 829 in 2013.
Chuck Underwood, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, called the high Florida count "great news" but cautioned it was only one piece of data that will go into the complex business of assessing the manatee's prospects for survival.
"Adult survival rates, habitat and warm water refuge availability, as well as ongoing and emerging threats are among the other data points the service must also consider in reaching its decision," Underwood says.
Pat Quinn, manatee coordinator for Broward County said that the increase in population is not a reason to reduce conservation efforts.
"Given the number of manatees that have died statewide over the past few years, we certainly shouldn't stop future efforts. It takes time for a slow reproducing species to recover from losing 10-plus percent of the population in a single season, and if you have multiple back-to-back seasons, it gets more difficult."
