In last week’s Darts & Laurels, we awarded a Laurel to Florida’s manatee population for making a tremendous comeback. This was spurred on by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s announcement Thursday that they were seeking to reclassify the West Indian manatee from “endangered” to “threatened.”
The proposal was prompted primarily by the cold, hard numbers concerning Florida’s manatee population. According to Michael Oetker, the southeast deputy regional director for FWS, “the manatee is no longer in danger of extinction.” In NPR’s piece on the development, writer Merrit Kennedy cited the 1991 aerial survey that only counted 1,267 manatees in Florida. It doesn’t take a mathematician to know this number is a strong juxtaposition from the more than 6,300 manatees currently estimated to be residing in our state. The news has been touted as a much-needed conservation victory across news and social media outlets alike. It is no mistake manatees are widely adored by Floridians and animal lovers at large: Disregarding domesticated pets, one would be hard-pressed to find a friendlier animal.
However, any such celebrations are not only premature, but also represent a tragic inability on the part of publications and the public to be able to read between the lines. As we mentioned last week, the Sun Sentinel reported that the effort to downgrade the manatee’s status to “threatened” has been generated chiefly by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a libertarian advocacy group that represents the interests of landowners and developers. It should not be difficult to parse out why individuals concerned with profiting off of coastal areas would like to see protections for manatees rolled back.
Many of the articles reporting on the matter have noted that, even with the alteration of status, manatees would be virtually afforded the same protections. As much as we wish this were true, it isn’t exactly the case. In a 2014 letter by Dr. Katie Tripp, the director of science and conservation for the Maitland, Florida-based Save the Manatee Club, she warns that declassification presents a dangerous step in undoing all of the good that protection efforts have achieved: “Reclassification will result in a reduction in protection for the manatee, by (FWS’) own description… ‘This analysis of threats is an evaluation of both the threats currently facing the species and the threats that are reasonably likely to affect the species in the foreseeable future following the delisting or reclassification and the removal or reduction of the Act’s protections.’” Tripp goes on to note that, although the manatee population has increased, the existential threats it faces, such as the alteration or pollution of warm bodies of water and unauthorized human interaction, have not been reduced to the point that conservation efforts can become complacent.
Tripp and the Save the Manatee Club are not the only ones with such concerns. In a letter sent to the FWS, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, called the initiative “misguided and premature,” and he urged the government to “not downplay the severity of these threats to the manatee’s survival.” Manatees have thrived because of, not in spite of, their classification and the protections it affords.
It would be a tragic error for us to allow our excitement over the manatees’ resurgence to become the very thing that brings about their undoing. We strongly urge our readers to consider calling our state’s representatives and senators, along with the FWS, to urge them to not downgrade the threat level posed to manatees. The FWS can be reached at 1-800-344-WILD. Florida’s unique fauna are part of what makes ours a beautiful state: We believe there is little sense in forsaking protection efforts.
