Tired of the Florida cold, manatees take off at the power plant

Manatees suffering from cold temperatures in typically temperate Florida resort to hanging out in the warm drainage of the state’s power plants.

According to news agency According to the report, manatees are congregating around the Florida Power & Light Company plant in Riviera Beach, where the company opened its manatee-focused Manatee Lagoon attraction eight years ago. Thus, manatees find some salvation during the cold snap in the Sunshine State.

Manatees grow to about 10 feet (3 meters) and weigh between 800 and 1,200 pounds (363 to 544 kilograms). They are native to the waters off Florida, which are usually warm.

But a Polar vortex Authorities clamped down on much of the United States last week and below-average temperatures hit Florida, making the manatees’ usually warm habitat uncomfortably cold. Thus, the dugongs headed to drain warm, clean water from the power plant.

“Manatees are a special species that we have in our waters here in Florida, because they are a sentinel species, which means they are an indicator of any water problems we may have or any environmental problems we may have,” said Rachel Shanker, director of education at Manatee Lagoon. , to the Associated Press. “They are among the first animals to start responding to any changes in the environment.”

Over the past two years, Florida manatees have suffered mass starvation. The devastating loss of native seagrasses, the species’ favorite food, was caused by algal blooms. Threatened manatees — listed as endangered until 2017 — are becoming distressed across the state, and in 2021 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported a record 1,100 manatee deaths.

The situation has become so extreme that in 2022 the state I resorted to Feed animals heads of romaine lettuce. The following year, conservation groups They announced their intention to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the agency’s alleged failure to protect manatees.

“Manatees come here to Lake Manatee for the warm water, but we don’t have a large seaweed population here on our property,” Shanker told the AP. “So they’ll come down here to Lake Manatee to get warm, and then when they start to get hungry, they’ll travel to find that seaweed, and they’ll go eat until they’re full, and they’ll get cold, and they’ll come back to our warm waters to get warm,” according to Shanker, using the plant. Ocean water cools the plant but does not change it, in other words, it is just warm ocean water.

The amount of seagrass off the Atlantic coast has recovered since its extinction, and manatee numbers have increased in parallel; Last year’s total manatee mortality rate (565 deaths) was “well below the average (739) in the last five years,” according to the report. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.

The population is still threatened, and so is Florida He is no stranger to natural disasters Which could affect the animals’ habitat. But the latest numbers have manatees on the rise, and that’s something worth celebrating.