BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Federal wildlife officials are considering up listing the Florida Manatee from threatened to endanger after a petition from four environmental groups.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic, Miami Waterkeeper, Save the Manatee Club and Frank S. González García, presented the petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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And this week, the agency announced reclassifying the West Indian manatee from threatened to endangered may be warranted.
Pat Rose, the Executive Director for the Save the Manatee Club told us, “They’ll gather together all the scientific information and background info and then do an evaluation as to the current risk to manatees in terms of future extinction.”
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Rose added that it could take a year or longer to complete that evaluation.
A record 1100 manatees died in Florida in 2021, another 800 died in 2022, many of them from starvation in the Indian River Lagoon due to a lack of seagrass.
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And the manatee population is still in the midst of an unusual mortality event.
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