For more than four decades, the iconic, blubbery Florida manatee has been listed as an endangered species, enabling it to survive in protected warm water habitats along busy, heavily populated Florida coasts. The whiskered marine mammals, which can weigh as much as 3,500 lbs., make a home where there are plentiful sea grasses and freshwater from estuaries and slow-moving rivers. That does lead the sea cows into conflict with humans, especially via boat collisions. It’s rare to find a manatee that hasn’t been struck, to the point that scars and gouges are commonly used to identify the survivors. But now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is considering reclassifying manatees down to threatened status, a process that could take at least one year to determine. Protections for endangered species are fixed by law; those for threatened species can be reduced by administrative decision. Although manatees would still remain protected, the move to become merely threatened would allow restrictions to be lessened for waterfront development and allow boaters to drive at faster speeds something that could — in theory — lead to more manatee collisions. That has some activists outraged. “It would be a foolish thing to downlist manatees now,” said Patrick Rose, executive director of Save the Manatee Club. Rose is one of the world’s leading experts on manatees and was the first federal coordinator for manatee recovery in Florida. “I call them the 'tugboat' species because of the political tug of war involving these animals,” he added.

‘It would be a foolish thing to downlist manatees now. I call them the ‘tugboat’ species because of the political tug of war involving these animals.’ Pat Rose director, Save the Manatee

Wildlife officials disagree about the threat posed by the possible change. “People have misperceptions that we have two lists. It’s one classification. Being endangered or threatened relates to whether a species is moving toward extinction or not. Manatees will remain protected,” said Chuck Underwood, FWS spokesperson. But in the last few years, manatee mortality has increased dramatically. Last year, scientists were baffled when more than 800 manatees perished in different parts of the state. On the west coast, there were toxin-producing algal blooms known as red tide that settled on sea grasses manatees eat. Scientists speculate that the microscopic algae could be occurring more frequently due to increasing amounts of nutrients from lawns and farmlands being absorbed into the waterways. On the east coast, an unprecedented cover of algae bloomed across 47,000 acres of coastline and smothered sea grasses. Dead manatees, pelicans and dolphins washed up on shore. Yet at the same time — and over a longer time scale — the species seems to be doing well. Before 2007, manatee populations gained ground so well that in the FWS five-year review, the animals were considered good candidates to be reclassified to threatened status. In 2010, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the minimum known population was 5077, more than twice that of a decade earlier. “Numbers tell us partially what’s going on. What they don’t tell us is how many manatees total we have out there and how healthy they are. We don’t know if the numbers represent 90 percent or half of the population. We don’t have statistical high confidence,” said Underwood. Part of that vagueness is how the animals are counted. Flight surveys rely on catching a glimpse of the animals when they bob up for air. The weather conditions must be ideal and water must be transparent to see and count them. Plus, the assessments are only done in winter, when manatees predictably migrate to warm waters near power plants and springs. Yet the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a libertarian-leaning national law firm, is using the numbers in the five-year review as ammunition to change the manatee’s endangered status. The PLF is representing some well-connected waterfront property owners around King’s Bay, who formed the Save Crystal River (SCR) group in 2011.

‘People have misperceptions that we have two lists. It’s one classification. Being endangered or threatened relates to whether a species is moving toward extinction or not. Manatees will remain protected.’ Chuck Underwood U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service