As soon as the power plants started to grow on the East and West coast of Florida, then the unseasonable rise of warm water was seen. The manatees living on these coasts learned to cope up with the rising temperatures of water.
The boats with sharp motors caused injuries to them which made them live with those injuries themselves. Also, their food chain was disturbed due to increasing toxic algae manifestation in the water. This made managers eat less than their usual diet.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has named an event called an Uneven mortality event which accounts for the death of more than 749 manatees in Florida this year.
The executive director of the Save the Manatee Club warns everyone to take care of the remaining Manatees while the time is still left. If we do not stop them from getting extinct, it’s our life that is going to suffer more.
Florida is the third most populated state in the U.S. will have to suffer badly and lose many more marine animals if the Manatees go extinct.
The main reason behind the death of these Manatees is contaminating the fresh as well as the saltwater, killing off the fishes and dirtying the water that millions of people in Florida rely on.
The executive director further added that nearly 1000 Manatees could die by the end of this year. If their death rate keeps increasing this way, there would be only 7000 manatees left behind. So we humans are a very crucial phase of saving these Manatees and cleaning up the Florida water bodies.
The main issues that are threatening the manatees are food and the rising temperatures of water bodies. The toxic effluents released from the industrial wastes cause algal bloom which eventually kills the seagrass which is the favorite food of Manatees.
They either overgraze and then starve for days which eventually makes them lose weight and push them towards death.
So, reducing the toxic effluents and cleaning up the water bodies is the only way to keep Manatees away from extinction.