manatees

Plans are already in place to resume an experimental feeding program for manatees that gather at a warm-water power plant near Cape Canaveral.

State wildlife officials are set to establish a “seasonal” no-entry zone in Brevard County waters to further protect threatened manatees, which have seen an unprecedented number of deaths mostly linked to malnutrition.

There have not been as many Florida manatees dying this year, but the iconic sea cows remain in trouble.

Gov. Ron DeSantis hays he will approve more than $30 million in the next state budget to help manatees, after a record number of deaths last year in Florida waters.

Wildlife agencies say they are winding down a program to provide supplemental lettuce for starving manatees in the Indian River Lagoon.

Many of manatee deaths have been attributed to starvation because of declining seagrass beds that are prime foraging areas, particularly in the Indian River Lagoon.

Environmental advocates are encouraged that a bill to open Florida’s seagrass beds to development – which could be devastating for the dwindling manatee population – has only a slim chance of passing the Legislature this session.

Wildlife agencies say rehabilitation centers are bracing for more manatees in an unprecedented die-off that they continue to characterize as a long-term event.

Wildlife agencies said Wednesday a new effort to provide starving manatees in the Indian River Lagoon with supplemental lettuce likely will be a long-term one.

New legislation attempts to prevent the loss of seagrass in Florida, which is essential to the state's marine ecosystem, but environmentalists are skeptical of the plan.