After cold snaps, manatee deaths on pace for record year in Florida

deaths, according to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonprofit government watchdog group.

“Florida’s manatees are one big freeze away from an ecological disaster and need more, not less, protection,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch.

Boating advocates who fight against manatee go-slow zones have long pointed out that manatee deaths are only going up because of the species’ population growth. Brevard and Lee counties, in particular, tend to have the most manatee deaths from all causes because they have large manatee populations lured there by seagrass habitats.

Florida’s annual manatee counts have more than doubled in the past 20 years, to more than 6,600 animals, according to statewide yearly aerial and ground counts. As a result, the federal government reclassified the manatee from an endangered to a threatened species, a less serious designation under the federal Endangered Species Act.

But the statewide annual counts are only a minimum count of the manatee population, so there could be thousands more.

A record 830 manatees died in 2013, including 158 of 244 manatees deaths in Brevard from undetermined causes. Biologists suspect many of those manatees may have fallen victim to a seagrass die-off that disrupted the makeup of healthy bacteria in their digestive tract, leading to the disease.

Last year was an unlucky year for manatees as well. The 538 manatee deaths from all causes in 2017 compare with 472 manatee deaths in 2016 and a five-year average of about 480 deaths.