The link above takes you to a 'new' reality for the Florida Manatee.
There needs to be a new 'survival' profile for all species and not just the Manatee. The impacts of Human Induced Global Warming will impact species in ways not previously noted on Earth. I noted an editorial yesterday at The New York Times, so while the Florida Manatee has the attention of the nation, now is a good time to discuss the reality of species survival and the impacts of Human Induced Global Warming.
Officials in the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Interior Department appear to believe that the time has come to reclassify the Florida manatee to “threatened” from “endangered.” That “downlisting” would give the manatee — the vulnerable, slow-moving sea cow, which is an environmental icon in Florida — a lower level of protection from its principal enemies, including boats and developers.
Senior Interior Department officials insist, however, that reclassification is far from a done deal. They say that a routine five-year review of the manatee’s status convinced some officials that this mammal was ready for downlisting. While those views were incorporated into an internal memorandum, they say, no formal proposal is on the table.
Let’s hope things stay that way. By all accounts, laws governing boat speed and waterfront development have led to manatee population increases in the last 30 years. But the creatures remain greatly at risk. Last year, the most dismal since recordkeeping began, 416 manatees died out of a total population of 3,200, many of them in propeller collisions.
Moreover, manatees now face one new and unexpected risk. In an unfortunate and ironic environmental twist, the laws that have closed coastal power plants have also deprived the manatees of the artificial refuges created by warm-water discharges from these plants.
This is just one more piece of evidence that the manatee’s future, however promising the short-term numbers, remains full of perils that should not be compounded by regulatory rollbacks.
Here is the latest reality of the Florida Manatee.
26 Manatee Deaths In Lee County Investigated
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Red tide may be to blame for 26 manatee deaths in Lee County in the past two weeks.
State wildlife officials are waiting for test results from toxin analyses to determine for certain whether red tide caused the deaths. But they said at least one sea cow died from exposure to red tide.
Red tide is formed when a microscopic algae reproduces at an explosive rate. The algae produces a neurotoxin that kills sea life and makes breathing difficult for humans.
Florida was hammered by a record red tide bloom in 2005 that expanded at one point to cover 25,000 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico.
THE THING IS THIS, no matter whom I speak to the concensus is the same. No species should be removed from any Endangered list and if anything the government agenices that monitor these issues should be putting a moratorium on removing any species from any Endangered or Threatened list with anticipation of adding many.
Why?
Because the paradigm we measured all species survival has shifted drastically. These are not extremist views and are shared by some of the best scientists in the USA, if not the world.
The Florida Manatee is very important in that it provides tourist dollars to the state. It's a known fact. Americans love to protect those among us less able to protect themselves. We are moral people and seek that morality at all levels within our country and beyond our borders. That statement excludes the illegal wars of leaders far less moral than the majority of the nation. At any rate, Florida waters are known to have algae blooms, many are benign. In this case, it is not. This is a harmful algal species that has manifested 'a new' along the east coast of the country.
The Florida Manatee is unique and found primarily in the waters of the Gulf Coast. It is known to have a minor migration to Chesepeake Bay in recent years. The reason for this migration is more than likely an expanding range north due to hotter ocean waters.
The algae involved in this 'episode' of dead Manatee ususally is found in tropical waters and mostly latent. It has a cyst stage and can 'winter' over in waters that are colder at times or when adverse circumstances exist for it to thrive. The waters have gotten warmer and we are seeing blooms of species once believed to be harmful and troublesome but mostly an annoyance from time to time changing. Not only that but in the coming months of publication of "Phycologia" there will be grossly proven evidence of a new species of harmful algae discovered in the Chesepeake Bay that has a unique pigment. The species was discovered in response to a fish die off by a scientists whom is extremely well credentialed and highly respected by his piers.
Basically, Earth is not static anymore. The oceans are heating and with that reality comes entirely new challenges for understanding the world we live in. As we look at the Manatee of Florida to realize it's new range and challenge to survive in the face of harmful algae blooms; we realize all to clearly the challenge of the USA to reduce it's carbon footprint as ever more present and urgent.
The Florida Manatee cannot be removed from the Endangered List and in fact may be facing a threat no one has counted on before.
