Manatee Interaction With Humans
The West Indian manatee has been hunted for hundreds of years for meat and hide, and continues to be hunted in Central and South America. Illegal poaching, as well as collisions with speeding motorboats, are a constant source of manatee fatalities.
Due to their low reproductive rates, a decline in manatee population may be hard to overcome. They enjoy protection from the US Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the US Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. The West Indian manatee is also protected by the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978, the Manatee Recovery Plan, and the Save the Manatee Club. However, in April 2007, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced the West Indian manatee population of Florida had rebounded. It advised the species be reclassified as threatened rather than endangered. A computer model produced for the federal study showed a 50% chance that the current statewide manatee population of about 3,300 could dwindle over the next 50 years to just 500 on either coast.
The Florida manatee subspecies (T. m. latirostris) was listed in October 2007 as Endangered by the IUCN on the basis of a population size of less than 2,500 mature individuals and a population estimated to be in decline by at least 20% over the next two generations (estimated at about 40 years) due to anticipated future changes in warm-water habitat and threats from increasing watercraft traffic over the next several decades.
During the winter months, manatees often congregate near the warm water outflows of power plants along the coast of Florida instead of migrating south as they once did, causing some conservationists to worry they have become too reliant on these artificially warmed areas. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to find a new way to heat the water for manatees that are dependent on plants that have closed.
Read more about this topic: West Indian Manatee
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