Orlando, FL — Today Representative Anna V. Eskamani submitted a letter of support to Secretary Debra Haaland of the Department of the Interior and Director Martha Williams of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service asking that they heed the request of a recent petition to reclassify the West Indian manatee and subspecies — including the Florida manatee — as endangered. You can read her letter here.
The petition was originally filed by The Center for Biological Diversity, Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic, Miami Waterkeeper, Save the Manatee Club and community leader Frank S. Garcia. You can read it here.
Manatees were listed as endangered in 1973. In 2012, the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nationwide anti-regulation law firm, filed a legal petition and threatened a lawsuit on behalf of a group of local property owners called Save Crystal River to downlist the manatee. This campaign was eventually successful, and the Florida manatee was downlisted from endangered to threatened on March 30, 2017 — a decision that most environmental groups vehemently opposed.
“Since the decision to downgrade, we have seen Florida’s manatee population decline dramatically,” said Representative Eskamani. “Pollution-fueled algae blooms have sparked an ongoing mortality event that has killed more than 1,110 Florida manatees in 2021 alone. This equates to 19 percent of the Atlantic population and 13 percent of all manatees in Florida. As the petition explains, deaths have continued with 726 manatees dying through October.”
Habitat loss, boat strikes, pollution, climate change and toxic algae blooms are all threatening the Florida manatee, and the restoration of full Endangered Species Act protections is an essential first step for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take.
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