375 Florida manatees die so far in 2022; FWC and USFWS start planning for next winter

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – As waters warm up across Florida, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are making plans to assess the temporary feeding site for Florida’s manatees in Brevard County, as well as make plans to help the animals next winter.

As of Feb. 25, FWC reports 375 manatees have died so far this year.

The FWC and USFSW held an update on the ongoing Unusual Mortality Event for manatees along Florida’s east coast, as well as their Joint Unified Command, on Wednesday.

According to FWC’s Major Dustin Bonds, cold fronts across the state had the biggest impact on manatees within the last six weeks, especially for Brevard County – the area where manatees are most affected due to lack of food.

“We saw our largest mortalities, which we were anticipating having,” Major Bonds said of the cold snap.

As for the ongoing supplemental feeding trial site in Brevard County, Ron Mezich of FWC and the Joint Unified Command Provisioning Branch chief, said the number of manatees they are seeing is dwindling as the weather warms up.

“During the last week, we’ve seen our manatee counts at the temporary field response station range from 25 to a high of 70, daily,” Mezich said.

They are seeing manatees disperse, as he said the current water temperature is around 76 degrees. Mezich said staff does not expect to see their numbers for feeding manatees changes as a brief cold front sweeps through Florida this weekend.

To date, around 110,000 pounds of romaine and butter leaf lettuce has been deployed for manatees at the temporary feeding site.

While efforts are ongoing, Mezich said they are beginning to work on “exit criteria” that will give the FWC and USFWS cues to when it’s time to wind down the operation in the spring.

After the temporary feeding site closes, teams will begin discussing manatee health, behavior and habitat and assess what they should do for next winter.

Andy Garrett, of the manatee rescue and recovery branches of the joint effort, said they are receiving more calls to the Wildlife Alert Hotline about distressed manatees as they disperse and are more easily seen by the public.

FWC is, however, seeing fewer dead manatees over the last few weeks.

“We’ve definitely seen a decrease in carcasses over the past few weeks as the weather’s warmed up,” said Garrett. “That’s pretty similar as to what we saw last year as animals are moving away from the warm water sites, they’re foraging and finding areas they can get to that are much farther away from the warm water sites.” 

Garrett said they anticipate numbers of dead manatee reports will continue to decline.

He said seagrass surveys will be able to tell them what to do moving forward. If surveys continue to show low levels of seagrass in places like the Indian River Lagoon, Garrett anticipates ongoing issues with manatee starvation next winter.

There are currently 82 manatees recovering at 13 facilities in Florida, Ohio, Puerto Rico and Texas. Terri Calleson with USFWS confirmed that very close to, if not all, recovering manatees will qualify for release going forward. Manatees in rehabilitation range from abandoned calves, to starving animals, to those suffering from watercraft-related injuries.

SeaWorld Orlando and the Jacksonville Zoo are taking most starvation cases from the Atlantic Coast, stabilizing the animal, then transferring them to second-stage rehabilitation facilities, like Disney World’s Living Seas. Calleson said SeaWorld Orlando is reporting they have taken in over 100 rescued manatees within the last 18 months.

The Georgia Aquarium will be brought into the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership in the next week or so to take stable manatees from SeaWorld, Calleson said.

There is currently no set date on when supplemental feeding of manatees will end on Florida’s east coast and no official plans for next winter. Work to expand critical care space for manatees at multiple facilities will continue into the summer.

All sick, distressed or deceased manatees should be reported to FWC by calling the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC.