A new record … ugh

What a bad year to be a Florida manatee. For the first time on record, more than 1,000 of the sea mammals have died in a calendar year—and it’s not even December yet.

That could amount to one in every seven of the state’s manatees gone in less than 11 months. Many of them starved, thanks to a die-off of seagrass, a problem worsened by human-made pollution.

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan has a bill to return the manatees to endangered status. In 2017, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified manatees from endangered to threatened, noting growing populations and improving habitat. But massive algal blooms in recent years have taken a toll on the manatees and their feeding grounds.

Buchanan, a Sarasota Republican and longtime champion of protecting the manatees, said the endangered status designation would help draw more funding and attention.

Another positive development: The Hillsborough County Commission voted recently in favor of an annual fertilizer ban from June 1 to Sept. 30, when runoff from heavy rain storms wash unneeded nutrients from the fertilizers into our waterways. The ban, which includes fines of up to $500, prohibits the application of fertilizers that contain nitrogen and phosphorus.

No one likes seeing manatees starving en masse or their battered carcasses floating ashore. The good news is that many of the deaths are preventable. We only need to change our behavior—pollute less, promote clean waterways, pay attention when boating. Our negligence and indifference are killing the manatees. It’s time for that to change.