Welcome to

There’s a crisis tonight facing the beloved Florida manatee. The cold weather is being blamed for nearly doubling the average number of deaths per year. From January through December 5th, nearly 700 manatees died in Florida waterways. The current cold spell is expected to claim more lives. Kipp Frohlich with Florida Fish and Wildlife’s Imperiled Species Management Section says the manatees are making a slow comeback, but not fast enough to account for the high rate of death.

“It’s not due just because there are twice as many manatees. They’ve been growing, but they’ve been growing slowly. So this has been a bad year and now of course we are worried because it’s cold once again, unusually cold,” said Kipp.

Manatees swim upstream to get near the warmer head springs when the temperature drops. Wildlife experts are asking boaters to keep a safe distance from sea cows, so they don’t scare them out of the warmer water.