Hundreds of manatee deaths attributed to cold weather
Friday, 10 Dec 2010, 11:15 AM EST
MyFoxTampaBay.com staff report
TAMPA - Manatees were deeply affected by the cold temperatures that froze the Bay Area and much of the state last winter, as 699 of them have been found dead since January 2010.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says that number of deaths, occurring between January 1 and December 5, is almost double the five-year average for that amount of time.
Cold stress is being blamed for at least 244 of the manatee death, according to Fish and Wildlife. Biologists are concerned, as they believe the below-normal temperatures also played a role in 271 more deaths, which they say are currently being classified as "undetermined" or "unrecovered."
"Data from our monitoring programs over the next few years will tell us if there are long-term implications for the population," Gil McRae, the director of the commission's research institute, said in a statement.
Officials say the cold weather was obviously a naturally-occurring event, but it shows how important warm water is for manatees' survival. FWC researchers and staff plan to focus on what they can do to protect that warm habitat that manatees need to live.
The number of manatee deaths related to boating incidents is expected to be similar to that of past years, FWC also said Friday. Despite a drop in such deaths in the early part of 2010, which is also believed to be cold-weather related, officials saw a higher than average number of manatees killed by watercraft.
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