04/15/2024
Biodiversity Collapse of a State Ecosystem
part 2 of 8
The animal in decline I will discuss , in conjunction with a private ( EIS) is the Florida Manatee. While the Florida manatee is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, it is a large oval grey slow moving marine mammal. The manatee is a herbivore, it feeds solely on turtle and eel grass as there primary unconfined diet un molested in the wild. Its main area it calls home is the gulf coast, as far west as Texas up the Atlantic coast as far north as the Carolinas but rarely going any higher due to water temperature as they depend on shallow warm water, thus this is what they can be found calling springs home during the winter due to springs output temp is always between 69-75 degrees no matter the season.
“The Florida manatee, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, is a large, slow-moving marine mammal with an elongated, round body and paddle-shaped flippers and tail. Manatees are herbivores, feeding solely on seagrass, algae and other vegetation in freshwater and estuarine systems in the southeastern United States. Florida manatees can be found as far west as Texas and as far north as Massachusetts during summer months, but during the winter, manatees congregate in Florida, as they require warm-water habitats to survive. Abundance of the subspecies has increased over the last 30 years, which prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to downlist the West Indian manatee from endangered to threatened in 2017. However, due to their slow speed and relatively high buoyancy, manatees are often struck by vessels, which is the primary cause of human-related deaths of the species. Additionally, manatees continue to be threatened by loss of warm-water habitat and periodic die-offs from red tides and unusually cold weather events. Florida manatees are managed jointly by both FWS and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).”
“Manatees live in three distinct areas of the world and are divided up in part to where they live – the Amazon, West Africa and the West Indies. The West Indian manatee is further divided into two subspecies – Floridian and Antillean manatees.”
While the primary issue to this aquatic mammal is people, as people and their actions are to be blamed. As the manatees are noted as the gentle giant the 3 things at sole blame are negligent boaters, loss of habitat due to development, then the subjacent of sewage, manure, agriculture waste, mass amounts of residential pesticide and herbicide, all this enters the runoff exciting the red tide bloom table. The herbicides are also nonselective, and the primary reason aquatic herbivores have no food as it is killing it directly off.
While the manatee’s selves play a highly key role to ecosystem balance the key thing is habitat. While many other things depend on the habits surrounding the manatees, this is either through direct or indirect action. The primary fact is if something isn’t done to reestablish aquatic habitats and stop developments within ¼ mile of all water ways Florida will see a full biodiversity collapse.
“If manatees become extinct in the wild, many animals that depend on manatee habitat for survival, including for food, shelter, camouflage from predators and reproductive cycles, also could be at risk of disappearing. This includes many species of fish, seahorses, starfish, clams, crabs, sea turtles and coastline birds. The manatees’ aquatic gardens also contain plants that help filter out nutrients from land runoffs, protecting fragile coastlines, wetlands and coral reefs from contaminants.”
Florida Manatee
https://www.mmc.gov/priority-topics/species-of-concern/florida-manatee/
Manatees Need Our Help
https://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/article/manatees-facts-health-keystone-species #:~:text=If%20manatees%20became%20extinct%20in,sea%20turtles%20and%20coastline%20birds.
March 23, 2023 — Learn about manatees and health research to help protect these special animals, vital to keeping sea grass habitats healthy.
