Manatee Deaths Focus Of $30M Rescue Effort In Florida

TAMPA, FL — With the announcement that Florida is allocating a record amount of money to save the endangered manatee, Florida's nonprofit manatee acute care facilities will receive a much-needed infusion of funds.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this week that more than $30 million from the Florida budget will be used to enhance and expand manatee rescue and rehabilitation efforts and provide habitat restoration for areas where manatees are highly concentrated.

This is a $17 million increase over money allotted for manatee care and protection last year.

“This historic funding will support important restoration efforts across the state to benefit our manatees and Florida’s natural environment,” said DeSantis. “My administration will continue working to find new and innovative ways to support our native species, like the manatee, so that the generations to come can experience Florida’s natural resources.”

The more than $30 million included in the budget includes:

• $20 million to enhance and expand the network of manatee acute care facilities, restore access to springs, provide habitat restoration in manatee concentrated areas, expand manatee rescue and recovery efforts, and implement pilot projects like the supplemental feeding trials that took place this past winter.
• $5.3 million to expand Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission manatee mortality and response efforts, including 12 new positions.
• $160,000 to support increased aerial surveys
• $4.7 million in base funding to support manatee acute care facilities and research, rescue, and conservation activities

The FWC has reported a record number of manatee deaths in Florida waters last year, surpassing the 1,000 mark for the first time since the FWC has been monitoring the status of the sea cows.

Last year, 1,101 manatees died. Necropsies showed many of the manatees died of red tide exposure, injuries after being struck by boat propellers and cold stress. But an increasing number are starving due to the loss of seagrass beds, the manatee's major food source.

The FWC said 2022's manatee mortality rate could eclipse last year's record total. As of April 29, 537 manatees have died in Florida waters.

The state has a number of projects underway to protect and restore the seagrass habitats.

Among them, researchers are working to develop a cost-effective, reliable procedure to accelerate the recovery of seagrass habitats. It can take years for some species of seagrass to recover from damage.

But it's equally important to prevent more damage to seagrass habitats by improving the quality of runoff and eliminating pollutants that harm seagrass, said Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Shawn Hamilton.

“The state is focusing on short- and long-term science-based strategies to improve water quality, including expanded monitoring and investment in long-term water quality improvement projects to reduce the amount of nutrients going into our waterways," he said. "With the historic levels of support under this administration, we have unprecedented resources to address challenging water quality concerns throughout the state.”

Additionally, the FWC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the formation of a Joint Incident Management Team to address the unusual mortality event for manatees along Florida’s coast.

The Joint Incident Management Team has implemented a number of approaches to give immediate relief to manatees in need of assistance, including conducting supplemental feeding trials to prevent starvation.

At Florida Power and Light's Cape Canaveral Clean Energy Center, for example, a temporary field response station was set up and staff fed more than 200,000 pounds of lettuce and other leafy vegetables to about 800 manatees.

The FWC is also a member of the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership, a cooperative of nonprofit groups that rescue, rehabilitate, release and monitor Florida manatees. Learn more about this program and the partner rehabilitation facilities. Members include ZooTampa, Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park, SeaWorld Orlando, Miami Seaquarium, and the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens where DeSantis announced the unprecedented $30 million appropriation.

Among the success stories that have come out of the manatee partnership is the rescue and rehabilitation of Bellissima at ZooTampa.

When Bellissima first arrived at ZooTampa in March 2021, her condition was dire. She was found entangled in mangroves with severe wounds.

A manatee of her size should have weighed well over 1,000 pounds, but Bellissima weighed just 750 pounds upon arrival at ZooTampa's David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Critical Care Center.

After more than a year of rehabilitation by medical and animal care teams, Bellissima is healthy and weighs in at just over 1,300 pounds.

"She looks like a completely different manatee," said Molly Lippincott, curator of Florida Manatees for ZooTampa. "She arrived at our manatee critical care center on March 9, 2021, emaciated and had wounds to her body and flipper from exposure. Bellissima was at least 300 pounds underweight and had severe injuries on her flippers."

The manatee team named her Bellissima, Italian for "beautiful," because she was rescued from Beautiful Island where she was found stranded by a hiker.

"She is a true testament to the dedication of our manatee team, and we are proud to announce that she will be released back into the wild on May 24th," said Lippincott. "The resilience of our amazing manatees always inspires us, and Bellissima is no exception."

Since 1991, ZooTampa has cared for more than 500 manatees, with the majority returned to the wild. Click here to read more manatee rescue stories at ZooTampa.

ZooTampa CEO and President Joseph A. Couceiro had high praise for DeSantis following his announcement.

"We are grateful for the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis and his pledge to approve a record budget of 30 million dollars to help manatees," he said. "Once the governor signs the budget, we hope to receive the additional funding allocated to ZooTampa to continue our efforts of rescuing and rehabilitating sick, injured, and orphaned manatees."

Couceiro noted that the critical care center at ZooTampa is one of only four such centers in the United States.

"We are at the forefront of saving this iconic species and have been operating at or near capacity for the past year and a half, reaching a milestone of more than 500 manatees cared for since opening in 1991," said Couceiro.

He said the funds will be used to construct a nursery pool for the zoo's most vulnerable manatee patients.

"We are thankful to the governor and the Florida legislature for their support of this historic and comprehensive funding which addresses the expansion of acute care facilities, habitat conservation, and restoration projects, and enhancement of MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife response efforts," he said.

Click here to read more manatee rescue stories at ZooTampa.