Florida Manatee Rebound Continues, But It's Not All Good News

More Good News For Florida Manatees, But …

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After hitting record highs in recent years, Florida manatee deaths in 2024 were far below the five-year average.

“That is a good sign," Tiare "TJ" Fridrich, a biologist with Save The Manatee Club, said in an interview Friday. "We've had seagrass regrow in the Indian River Lagoon, in the northernmost part, and that's where we had that significant mass mortality event that happened.”

T​he Indian River Lagoon, or IRL, is a 156-mile-long brackish estuary that stretches along Florida's East Coast from near Daytona Beach south to Palm Beach County. It's a primary habitat and migratory route for manatees, and its seagrass is key to their diet.

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Algae blooms fueled by nutrient pollution like fertilizer caused about 54 square miles of seagrass in the IRL to die over a 10-year period, Fridrich said.

T​hat led to a mass die-off of manatees that peaked in 2021 and 2022. There were 547 manatee deaths reported in Florida between Jan. 1, 2024, and Dec. 20, well below the year-to-date average of 716 over the past five years, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Fr​idrich said a trial feeding program run by the state in Brevard County over two winters helped, and adult manatees in the IRL are recovering.

"So now we might be seeing these animals as they start to recover, able to have calves again but maybe not take care of them or they just aren't as healthy as they would have normally been," she said.

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T​here's also growing concern for manatees on Florida's West Coast.

"These hurricanes that have come through year after year are damaging the freshwater vegetation and the seagrass as well, and we're having animals over there having to travel further to find food," Fridrich said.

A​nd two of manatees' biggest other threats are always a concern: Cold winter weather that pushes water temperatures below what they can survive, as well as boats.

"Manatees being struck and killed by boats is still a huge issue," Fridrich said. "On average, 25% of all of the mortality year to year is from watercraft strikes, and 1 in 4 manatees will be hit by a boat upward of 10 times in their lifetime."

Anyone who sees a dead or distressed manatee should call FWC's Wildlife Alert hotline at 888-404-3922.

Weather.com staff writer Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.