Nearly 600 manatees died in Florida waters in 2020; draft rules could help deaths

UngulateNerd92

UngulateNerd92

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Newly written draft language for proposed boater safety legislation may help protect threatened manatees from being killed by boat strikes.

Last year, 593 manatees were found dead in Florida. Of those, an estimated 90 died after boat strikes, according to preliminary data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That means 15 percent died from boat-related injuries. But that percentage could be higher.

Draft regulation could help prevent manatee deaths in Florida waters
 
What's the statewide population of manatees? I feel like some context is needed here.
 
Would it be that hard to fit a steel guard over the prop? At least it would stop the blades cutting into the animal even if it made contact!
 
Zorro said:
Would it be that hard to fit a steel guard over the prop? At least it would stop the blades cutting into the animal even if it made contact!
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I think the authorities have implemented slow speed zones and mostly tried to do outreach work to raise awareness of the issue in communities near manatee habitat.

Doesn't appear to be working out so well though.
 
Zorro said:
Correct, but these can be put into law!
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Yes , I do know what you mean, but legislative measures can take a long time to be put in place.

But do you know what I find the most incredible and telling thing ?

I find it amazing that there were evidently enough speedboats out and about in the Florida waterways on recreational trips to kill 600 manatees all of which during a year where people should have been sheltering / staying in because of the pandemic.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes , I do know what you mean, but legislative measures can take a long time to be put in place.

But do you know what I find the most incredible and telling thing ?

I find it amazing that there were evidently enough speedboats out and about in the Florida waterways on recreational trips to kill 600 manatees all of which during a year where people should have been sheltering / staying in because of the pandemic.
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Whilst I understand what you're saying the actual number killed by boats was 90, whilst still depressing not nearly as much as 600.
 
the racoon has spoken said:
Whilst I understand what you're saying the actual number killed by boats was 90, whilst still depressing not nearly as much as 600.
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Sorry, should have read the title and article better, my bad, though the article does state that 200 of these deaths could not be investigated so a higher amount of deaths could have potentially occurred because of collisions with boats too.

I agree, it is still depressing to have almost hundred reports of these animals dying because of collisions with speed boats.

These are slow reproducing animals so every death is a tragedy. It does make you wonder what the true extent of their population decline really is if so many are dying every year.
 
This is also the subspecies of West Indian manatee that is less represented in captivity. The Antillean one seems to breed regularly in Europe and Singapore (every few months I seem to get a notification of a captive birth) but the Florida one doesn’t seem to be bred much or at all by SeaWorld or the Ohio zoos.
 
RatioTile said:
What's the statewide population of manatees? I feel like some context is needed here.
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Indeed, 500 deaths (perhaps some indireclty/direclty caused by humans) still feels like a lot to me. But I am not sure how large and the demographic of the population, which could inform uswhether these numbers are normal for the population.
 
RatioTile said:
This is also the subspecies of West Indian manatee that is less represented in captivity. The Antillean one seems to breed regularly in Europe and Singapore (every few months I seem to get a notification of a captive birth) but the Florida one doesn’t seem to be bred much or at all by SeaWorld or the Ohio zoos.
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I'm not sure ex-situ captive breeding programes would ever be a viable alternative for this species though.

With manatees and in spite of all the anthropogenic threats it seems like the best option is in-situ.
 
I generally prefer ex-situ to in-situ conservation because you can’t trust that assholes or ignorant people won’t break the law and poach/smuggle/hunt animals for subsistence, esp. in developing countries or places with organized crime or just very arrogant tourists.

I’m not sure if it’s right, but I have a hoarding mindset and distrust of the public when it comes to stewardship of endangered species. I think the more threatened species we have in zoos and the private trade and are breeding, the better.
 
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RatioTile said:
I generally prefer ex-situ to in-situ conservation because you can’t trust that assholes or ignorant people won’t break the law and poach/smuggle/hunt animals for subsistence, esp. in developing countries or places with organized crime or just very arrogant tourists.

I’m not sure if it’s right, but I have a hoarding mindset and distrust of the public when it comes to stewardship of endangered species. I think the more threatened species we have in zoos and the private trade and are breeding, the better.
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This is quite a problematic view that you have @RatioTile, the truth is that in-situ conservation is always hard and is an uphill challenge but without it ex-situ cannot really be called conservation and is in fact almost totally meaningless.

Again, we have had this conversation before on your categorisation of the developing world in very negative and generalized terms quite a number of times. It is simply not realistic to state that people involved in activities like subsistence hunting are "ignorant" or "assholes".

Actually, there is nothing inherently wrong with subsistence hunting as it is a lifestyle essential for human survival in many areas of the world, the important thing is that it is done sustainably.

For example in Central Africa there are literally very few alternatives to bushmeat hunting in terms of people deriving a source of protein that is an essential component for the human diet.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
This is quite a problematic view that you have @RatioTile, the truth is that in-situ conservation is always hard and is an uphill challenge but without it ex-situ cannot really be called conservation and is in fact almost totally meaningless.

Again, we have had this conversation before on your categorisation of the developing world in very negative and generalized terms quite a number of times. It is simply not realistic to state that people involved in activities like subsistence hunting are "ignorant" or "assholes".

Actually, there is nothing inherently wrong with subsistence hunting as it is a lifestyle essential for human survival in many areas of the world, the important thing is that it is done sustainably.

For example in Central Africa there are literally very few alternatives to bushmeat hunting in terms of people deriving a source of protein that is an essential component for the human diet.
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I was thinking more of bird traffickers, illegal loggers, shark finners etc. than people who rely on wild animals for food. The latter isn’t really at fault because they have no other choice.

As for the developed world there’s still people in the EU who trap and eat wild birds, even though they have access to supermarkets.
 
RatioTile said:
I was thinking more of bird traffickers, illegal loggers, shark finners etc. than people who rely on wild animals for food. The latter isn’t really at fault because they have no other choice.
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That is not "subsistence hunting" so that was the wrong term to use to refer to the activities you've mentioned in this comment.

Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with subsistence hunting if it is done sustainably as it is by indigenous peoples who have inhabited forests and other ecosystems for millennia. Peoples like the Baka, Embera , Yamomami, Dayak etc are both subsistence hunters / hunter gatherers and very effective stewards of their environment.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
This is quite a problematic view that you have @RatioTile, the truth is that in-situ conservation is always hard and is an uphill challenge but without it ex-situ cannot really be called conservation and is in fact almost totally meaningless.
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Yeah, but by this definition conservation of animals that lost their entire native ranges, such as Mexican goodeids and some desert pupfish, would be meaningless. I still think there’s value in maintaining their bloodlines.

Also I guess my bias comes from years of reading environmental articles that tend to frames issues with such a bias, that blames development in the Global South for a lot of things.
 
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RatioTile said:
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Yeah, but by this definition conservation of animals that lost their entire native ranges, such as Mexican goodeids and some desert pupfish, would be meaningless. I still think there’s value in maintaining their bloodlines.

Also I guess my bias comes from years of reading environmental articles that tend to frames issues with such a bias, that blames development in the Global South for a lot of things.
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That is a very niche topic in terms of the Mexican pupfish and I wasn't suggesting that their maintenance ex-situ is meaningless given that there is no natural habitat left to return to. As you know I am very much in favour of these species persisting ex-situ but unquestionably it would be better if there was habitat still left to conserve them in-situ and we have to desperately try to avoid this happening with other species.

Well it is a view that is problematic and my advice would be to try to tackle this bias that you have because it is almost certainly erroneous and misplaced. If we are honest it is largely the Global North that is the bigger problem in terms of climate change and overconsumption of natural resources.
 
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