Posted on 11/27/2021 4:05:58 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
What a bad year to be a Florida manatee. For the first time on record, more than 1,000 of the sea mammals have died in a calendar year — and it’s not even December yet. That could amount to 1 in every 7 of the state’s manatees gone in less than 11 months. Many of them starved, thanks to a die-off of seagrass, a problem worsened by human-made pollution. In the short run, Florida owes it to this iconic mammal to find ways to mitigate the damage. It’s also time to put the manatees back on the endangered species list, which would help their long-term prospects.
In recent years, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has estimated the state’s total manatee population at a minimum of 7,250. Through Nov. 12, the commission has recorded 1,003 deaths, smashing the previous record of 830 set in 2013. As the Tampa Bay Times reported, the year got off to a bad start when manatees returned to one of their typical wintering spots near a power plant in the Indian River Lagoon off Brevard County. Manatees often seek the warmer waters near power plants during cold winter months. But algal blooms in recent years killed tens of thousands of acres of seagrass, a primary food source for the voracious eaters. A 1,000-pound manatee can eat 100 pounds of food in a day, according to the University of Florida. Without enough seagrass, many of the manatees starved.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Typical TBT. They get a few things correct (population vs available habitat) and then it’s all leftist talking points along with the ever present “climate change” and rising sea levels crapolla.
Orlando would be under water now if their long ago predictions held water - pun intended. Not that Orlando under water would be such a bad thing now LOL. We left Florida 16 years ago - about 25 years later than we should have done.
What’s wrong with Orlando? It’s on my list of places to retire to. Right now I’m stuck in San Jose, CA.
Too many years ago on my 52nd birthday I went to Crystal River and swam with the manatees. It was a true bucket list experience.
I hear the manatees taste like chicken.
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Clearly you have never had a Manatee steak.
Fertilizer runoff from sugar cane field is a large factor in red tide algae blooms. Nutrient rich water coming down the caloosahatchee river is essentially the problem.
I guess to some degree it depends on where you are coming from, literally and figuratively.
I moved to Florida in the mid 60s in high school. It was a nice place to be a teenager. The building boom and Disney hit in the mid 70s and growth was so dramatic from there on it was like a cancer. Central FL roads and traffic are a nightmare, though perhaps not in comparison to where you are now. Ditto for crime. Orlando / Orange County are run by commie libtards with no relief in sight. Illegals abound.
On a personal level, the wife and I just got worn down by the traffic and almost never ending summers. Here in central Kentucky we actually spend less time trapped in doors by the weather than we did by the heat in Florida. That said, it does take time for the heat to wear you down. You’ll be fine unless you plan on living there for 30 or 40 years.
I had my belly full of too many people and too much traffic & I missed having four seasons a year.
Back in the day, newsies said they were getting killed by boat props. I thought that by the way they looked, they deserved to die, seals don’t get hurt that way, fish aren’t even that stupid.
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