Florida manatees are dying at a record pace. Nearly 2,000 manatees died in 2021 and 2022 combined — a two-year record.
Will you raise your voice for these gentle marine mammals? Unchecked water pollution is driving a starvation crisis for manatees. More than half of their deaths have occurred in the Indian River Lagoon, where pollution has been destroying the seagrass that serves as their primary food source. Manatees are also seriously threatened by collisions with boats, which can injure and kill them. These collisions are so common, sadly, that almost all adult Florida manatees bear boat-propeller scars, which biologists now use to tell them apart from each other. Last November the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to again grant maximum protection to manatees — reclassifying them from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act — so they can get the help they desperately need. This month is the agency’s deadline to respond. Tell the Fish and Wildlife Service: Manatees need the full protection of the Endangered Species Act before it’s too late.
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AuthorB. Buil is an endorsed Chaplain, DEI Educator, Somatic/Trauma Care Practitioner, Disability Rights Advocate, Environmental and Social Justice Activist Archives
September 2023
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