Not For The Faint Of Heart...

Ironic that she interned at FWRI (not FMRI anymore) when in fact the FWC biologists who study manatees, made the recommendation that they be downlisted.

3000 manatees live in Florida, twice the number that were here 20 years ago based on surveys conducted by the FWC/DNR/DEP.

Based on the science it's clear the mammals have made a remarkable comeback and need to be downlisted.

Of course since there is no one that can say what their carrying capacity nor historic range/population was, there are still a lot of unknowns.

Scott D.,
While you're right to point out that the numbers of manatees have risen, there are compounding factors that jeopardize recovery. Algal blooms and recreational vehicles are often to blame for manatee deaths. Red tides, I'll add, may be increasing with nutrient loading from runoff.

Another issue that was brought to my attention last year in the Florida office is the potential externality of shutting down power plants. Years ago, manatees discovered warm outflows surrounding these areas. You see, these marine mammals must migrate elsewhere when water temp dips below 68F or they suffer from pneumonia and other infections or skin lesions which may lead to death.

Historically, they traveled to warmer waters, but the power plants are closer to home and scientists suggest that today, 60 percent of Florida manatees travel to waters surrounding power plants. Aging power plants are now at risk of closure. How will this impact populations? We don't know, but it does raise a red flag in terms of recovery.

With this particular species, I believe we need more time to assess their status and observe changes. It's not a numbers game alone.

Your answer to Scott is very enlightening and important.
I did write to Governor Crist, as you suggest. The Manatees are beautiful animals, and are Endangered. They certainly deserve to have the time and compassion of the Governor, and in turn, help to secure their survival.

That is actually a good enough phrase to put on a t-shirt, Sheril. "Nature: It's not a numbers game alone." Someone needs to send that to Bjorn Lomborg, a statistician by his own admission, who has a good grasp on the quantitative side of nature, but is clueless about the qualitative side of it.

This is the same story right now that many people are trying to advance for polar bears -- because there are 25,000 of them and they are more abundant than 20 years ago, they must be all set to deal with global warming.

That's a very profound and simple sentence.

This video is also not for those eating lunch while they read The Intersection!

First chimp porn, now manatee slasher footage. You may have to put a parental advisory warning on this site.

I'm not sure a gory manatee post mortem says anything important on the subject of delisting the manatee. As Scott points out the science is clear on the recovery of the manatee.

The purpose of putting species on the endangered list is to facilitate their recovery. Once the data shows a succesful increase in viability it is important to move the species in question to the appropriate status in this case "threatened", which still provides protections.

If emotional and political arguments are used to subvert the science it only works in favor of those that resist placement of species onto the list in the first place.

If the process is percieved as a ploy to achieve broad environmental goals, such as removing land from developement or stopping industrial growth, it makes it that much harder to get species listed as endangered. Which of course hurts the original goal of species protection.

yawn.

It's propaganda -- and quite dramatic -- but I think most readers of this blog would prefer to read about the issue in its scientific context.

I'm glad Scott got that ball rolling with his question and enabled Sheril to present the scientific argument that we have to go beyond the numbers. But I would have preferred a scientific post as my first intro to the subject at The Intersection.

Then I could look at the video as an example a particular type of political communication. I'd ask who is the intended audience, what does it hope to achieve, and is it effective in accomplishing its goal?

Lance has presented a case that it might be counter-productive. Sheril clearly thinks otherwise.

Has anyone attempted to measure its political effect?

It's true the numbers of manatees have doubled over the last two decades but whether or not 3000 animals is adequate to delist them calls into question what the 'baseline' ulitmately is. Many scientists I've spoken with have speculated manatee numbers were unfathomably high in the past (manatees have no natural predators). But we will need further research into this question before we can speak confidently on their historical abundance. Probability of outright extinction is low but we can expect further declines. Personally, I'd rather see fewer motorboats...

When I was an intern, I participated in a study to monitor boater speeds through manatee zones. I watched many Saturdays as cigarette boats ignored the signs and blasted through the canals (while pontoon and sailboats never did). The ESA is one of few legal precedents for prosecuting this type of reckless and inhumane behavior. I saw many manatees at the nec lab splayed out like slinkies across the table all because a boater couldn't slow down and take 5 extra minutes on his recreating Saturday. Sheril's right. Nature is not simply a numbers game. There is an element of decency, too.

In response to Linda's comment
"The Manatees are beautiful animals, and are Endangered. They certainly deserve to have the time and compassion of the Governor..."
I would submit that there are many, many critically endangered animals and plants that do not evoke the same emotional response as marine mammals do, but this does not make them less worthy of federal protection and public support (check out Sheril's comments on the IUCN Red List http://scienceblogs.com/intersection2007/09/on_turning_red.php ).
I love marine mammals. I spent several years devoting my life to studying marine mammal populations. It should be considered, however, that when a population has made a significant recovery from the brink of extinction, the time and resources devoted to that recovery could well be redirected towards other species with more critical circumstances. I'm not implying that this is a zero-sum game, but the reality of an extremely expensive, time consuming and bureaucratic process that accompanies the label of "endangered" should be reserved for the species that truly fit the definition of endangered.
Don't mistake the downlisting of the Florida manatee as an attempt to pretend all threats to the species have been eliminated. Significant protections still exist for threatened species and the Florida manatee still has a long way to go until it can be delisted. Remember, though, that complete recovery of the species so it can be delisted is the goal. We should celebrate this small victory in the recovery of the Florida manatee and continue to work towards the day when the species is completely self-sustaining and does not need government protection to thrive.

I'm extremely pleased to see this thread of comments is getting some very heavy hitters in the world of marine sciences! Thanks to you all for reading and weighing in ;)

Can someone please explain to me what would cause a manatee's heart to explode like that? WTF is going on in that footage?

Thanks!

Kristine,
Of course I would like to see the Manatees be self-sustaining and thrive, but I am no less interested in the many other endangered animals and plants that need help.
The Manatees are up there in the forefront of everyones vision; the others should be too.

To simplify the heated and thoroughly drawn out debate over manatee recovery into some cutesy animals vs. evil man is a gross oversimplification both from a scientific and economic perspective (sorry but you have to have both in this one).

No one knows how many manatees there were. Power plant proliferation has caused a formerly migrating animal to stay year round in places it was not supposed to be. Seagrass has been negatively impacte din areas where these manatees are unnaturally congragating.

I'm sorry but an animal that has recovered over twice its numbers is not in decline and should be relisted. There was even a recent paper , I'll have to look for it, that showed manatees could lose half their current population and not be in danger of extinction.

You are right in that there are more than numbers. But numbers are integral here- the cost of increased law enforcement on the water in a state that has a $1 billion dollar budget shortfall and a plan to reduce taxes even more. Not to mention that the FWC is currently undermanned and overworked. The cost of increased monitoring at the behest of an overfunded "non-profit" group, again with declinging budget. The shifting away of law enforcement and scientific priorites away from real issues like commercial fishing poachers and drunks on the water.

The Save the Manatee club and their cronies have turned this into a cute mammal vs. evil fishermen/boater cause that has done nothing to address real issues and concerns about manatees, boater safety, and habitat issues surrounding this debate. All it has done is kept this group's coffers filled with cash. When the biological reviews came out over five years ago showing increases in manatee numbers, even after a devastating red tide, the STM club downplayed it. Well here we are five years later and the numbers are stable- no dramatic decline

I wish people would give half a care over the declining world fisheries and stormwater/nutrient runoff (two FAR MORE pressing marine environmental concerns) as they would over an aquatic elephant.

I was first introduced to the pressure that can build in decomposing bodies when my high school boyfriend intentionally hit a (rather old) piece of roadkill (specifically, a groundhog) and it expoloded all over the entire passenger side of the car (my side). The manatee had been rotting for several days and "it was so badly decomposed, it was actually hissing from the gases". It's not too uncommon to find exploding organs on the first incision but that it should be the heart on the day National Geographic chose to film was a particular rarity.

Jennifer,

Did you work at the necropsy lab at Eckerd or the main FWRI building? I worked there from 95-01 in fisheries.

I worked in the manatee section at what was then FMRI in the St. Pete office in early 2002. I only visited the necropsy lab out of curiosity but I never had the constitution to assist. I imagine we know the same people, though!

We probably do. Our section wasn't as high profile as the manatee group, hence my obvious pro-fish bias!