Florida manatees may be reclassified from ‘endangered’ to ‘threatened’

Florida manatees may be reclassified

The environmental icon of Florida — Florida manatee – is imperiled. It has suffered its most dismal year on record in 2006. The manatee had a population of about 3,200, but it decreased drastically with 416 dying out in 2006, making it the highest number of recorded deaths in 30 years of statistics. Many of the threatened species died in collisions with boat propellers.

With the manatees threatened by a run-in with boats and propellers, many environmentalists demand that the manatees should remain classified as an endangered species.

Concerned over the prevailing condition of the celebrated marine mammals, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has now been drafting plans under which they would lose their protection as an endangered species, according to an internal memo.

The plan has reclassified the slow-moving sea cows from ‘endangered’ to ‘threatened’ and is sure to elicit criticism from environmental groups as being a part of the efforts of Bush administration to poke holes in the Endangered Species Act.

According to environmental leaders, the new designation may enable loosening of boating speed limits and restricting on waterfront development that have been instituted to make Florida safer for the species.

Patrick Rose, executive director of the Save the Manatee Club and an aquatic biologist who served as the first federal manatee coordinator said,

This is absolutely the wrong time to down-list manatees. The terrible thing is, while the last year for manatees was bad, the future could be even worse.

Recent Articles:

Scroll to Top