So the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has put forth a proposal to remove the West Indian Manatee from the ‘Endangered Species List’ and reclassify manatees as ‘threatened’ instead of ‘critically endangered’. They put forth this proposal because the numbers of manatees in Florida waters has grown from 1,267 back in 1991 to an estimated 6,300 manatees today, a growth of over 500%.
The proposal was also put forth to strip nature’s most noble creature, the manatee, of the all federal protections in place to ensure the manatee’s population numbers continue to grow (according to CNN). Now I’ll tell you why this is a stupid fucking idea and why these people should all get their heads out of their asses.The West Indian Manatee genearlly inhabits shallow water close to coastal land that is protected from large waves AND is home to lots and lots of vegetation (manatees eat a shit ton of sea lettuce every day, and poop an unfathomable amount daily). Boaters (skiers, fishermen, wakeboarders, etc) want the protected waters of the manatee for recreational purposes, and they’re willing to strip the manatee of these protected waters in the pursuit of flat water for skiing and wakeboarding. Thus they’re trying to reclassify manatees as ‘protected’ so the species lose these federally protected waters and boaters can get in there and have their fun. Manatees are the only aquatic mammal (to my knowledge) that have NO NATURAL PREDATORS. Sharks don’t attack manatees. Whales don’t attack manatees. The only predator a manatee is forced to contend with are, you guessed it, human beings driving power boats. It’s the propeller of boat engines that cause manatee deaths, which takes place when boaters are hauling ass through manatee waters and clip the top of a manatee as it comes up to the surface for some air. When we take away the manatee’s protected waters and begin boating in those waters again the number of manatee deaths in Florida caused by boating accidents will begin to skyrocket like they did back in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this: if we begin boating in manatee waters again we will kill large numbers of manatees…
