Florida Manatee Deaths Shatter Yearly Record With 6 Months To Go

The sea cows are starving as the seagrass they depend on dies from pollution and extreme weather.

At least 841 manatees have died in Florida waters during the first half of 2021, an unprecedented level of mortality that has already shattered the previous record for an entire year. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s preliminary data points to a decline in seagrass that the manatees eat as the main cause. The previous annual record was set in 2013, when 830 manatees died over 12 months due to a toxic red tide. “Unprecedented manatee mortality due to starvation was documented on the Atlantic coast this past winter and spring,” the commission said in its report. “Most deaths occurred during the colder months when manatees migrated to and through the Indian River Lagoon where the majority of seagrass has died off. The long-term health effects of prolonged starvation in manatees that survived the Atlantic event to this point are not yet known.”