The day we were there (end of Feb.) it was pretty cool and there were hundreds of manatees hanging out in the warmer water there.
Posted on 03/17/2010 5:37:53 PM PDT by Brilliant
The New Year's cold snap devastated the state's manatee population, with more than 100 carcasses showing up in state waters in the first three weeks of 2010...
Biologists report that the big chill — which brought the coldest 12-day period South Florida has seen since at least 1940 — inflicted mortal cold stress on an unprecedented scale, killing at least 77 of the 107 dead manatees found as of Jan. 23, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The number of cold stress deaths exceeded the previous single-year record of 56, set last year.
The manatees join the untold millions of fish that went belly-up from Florida Bay to Tampa Bay and the hundreds of sea turtles that bobbed to waters' surface in frozen shock from this year's cold weather...
Researchers say the cold likely contributed to the deaths of several newborn manatees as well.
The death toll is expected to rise as biologists continue to work extended hours pulling carcasses from state waters and performing necropsies, the wildlife commission said. The rate should slow as temperatures warm.
The news comes a week after scientists reported that the cold weather had resulted in annual statewide manatee count that broke all previous records. The sea cow survey counted 5,067 across Florida, smashing the previous record of 3,802 set in 2009, as scientists found the manatees especially easy to spot huddled near sources of warm water, such as the power plant outfalls.
At the Florida Power & Light's power plant in Riviera Beach, hundreds of manatees huddled throughout the cold spell in an inlet about two-thirds the size of football field, where warm water poured from discharge pipes. The crowd of sea cows was so thick "you could probably walk across them," as Palm Beach County's environmental director observed...
(Excerpt) Read more at palmbeachpost.com ...
Manatees have almost no body fat which is what makes them susceptible to the cold. Their body shape is due to their huge lungs.
(In my best Cliff from "Cheers" voice ...) Actually, they make excellent bean bag chairs! ;^) Well, that ... and there isn't blubber on manatees. They're plant eaters, vegans, sea cows; they eat no fat and are pretty much all muscle, which is why they sink to the bottom when they rest. It's also why they're dying from the cold: they have no blubber to keep them warm.
A walrus or a seal or a sea lion or a dolphin, on the other hand, eats fish and gets lots of fat in their diets. Their fat serves the dual purpose of giving them buoyancy, and insulation from the cold.
One wonders: “Where was PETA?” They should have been out there with tents & electric blankets and all that other stuff. Do they really Care?
PETA should be out there demonstrating for power plants to warm up the water for the sea cows.
ping
The Tropical Plants around here are all dying too. Beautiful Royal Palm trees just losing all their fronds. It’s so cold at night.
THAT’S NO MANATEE! THAT’S BARNEY FRANK ON VACATION!!!
The day we were there (end of Feb.) it was pretty cool and there were hundreds of manatees hanging out in the warmer water there.
Wow. Thanks for posting. They are really neat and gentle creatures.
This is “Florida cold.” I think it is just a damp cold. When it is 60 F in FL it is like 50 or 45 F up north.
I'm waiting for Al Gore or Jim Hansen to say -- "Shut down those fossil powered steam plants that need to use our waters and we can make sure all the Manatees die off. Wind and Solar don't need cooling and screw the Manatees -- we have to save the Earth."
I’m actually sorry to hear this.
Sure hope the lefties can cool the planet down. /s
Manitee, meet insanitee...
Exactly. All those school children who were weeping because the polar bears would drown, should be told about how AlGore froze the manatees with his carbon hysteria.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.