Manatees headed to safer waters

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that it is reviewing a petition to downlist the manatee from 'endangered' to 'threatened.'  Scientists from the agency (and the State of Florida) first indicated their support for this in a review of the species back in 2007, but it took a lawsuit for them to actually move forward with it.  Yet, just last year, the Huffington Post reported the 'sad record' that 16% of manatees - 830 - died in 2013.  Which is it?  A sad or happy story?

On balance, the story of the manatee is one of success.  Regulations put in place back in the 1990s have held down deaths of manatees from powerboats traveling at high speeds.  Many key areas of manatee habitat have been protected.  And if you look at the numbers, counted nearly every year since the late 1980s, its hard not to see that things are going in the right direction (blue line below). 

So what about 800 deaths?  Any deaths of endangered species caused by people are something we could continuously work to eliminate, but if you look at the numbers, 800 deaths are not a record as a percent of the population.  Back in 1997, there were 19% of manatees found dead.  Around 2002, it was 18%.  More manatees are dying in part because there are more manatees.  If you look at the agencies averages in 5 year blocks, from 1985-1990, about 11% of manatees died per year.  Each 5 years thereafter, its ranged from 11-13% per year in a 5 year average.   The last 5 years are hard to figure out because the manatee population wasn't counted in 2012-2013, but in those years, mortality (which was counted) was between 390-450 manatees per year so its not likely the average annual mortality would have been any higher. 

So what we see is a general pattern of increasing manatee population counts, increasing counts of dead manatees, and a relatively stable percent of manatees dying. 

Clearly the manatee still faces threats, including the issue of red tide-related deaths, but surely its now a threatened, not an endangered species.  We should celebrate this progress and keep working to ensure the species has a bright future in Florida and the Caribbean.