Beloved manatees had their day - but their homes remain in danger
National Manatee Appreciation Day was marked on Wednesday, celebrating the gentle giants that congregate off the Florida coast.
The herbivores glide through coastal and riverine areas, feeding on seagrasses and other aquatic plants.
While the Florida manatee, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, can be found as far west as Texas and travel as far north as Massachusetts during the summer months, the marine mammals cannot tolerate temperatures below 68 degrees for extended periods of time.
Threats from climate change and other human causes have resulted in deadly consequences for the squishy-looking species.
'They're kind of the first animals to start to respond to any changes in the environment. And because they're so charismatic, people really take note of that,' Florida Power & Light Company's Manatee Lagoon education manager Rachel Shanker previously told The Associated Press.
Earlier in the year, chillier temperatures sent manatees close to warm-water discharges from power plants.
Weighing as much as 3,500 pounds and growing to between nine and 10 feet long, the greyish brown potato-shaped sea creatures can suffer from 'cold stress' and potentially die from the condition. Exposure to lower water temperatures causes manatees to lose body heat and to inadequately digest their food.
'Unfortunately, when temperatures drop rapidly or remain low for significant periods of time,' Michelle Passawicz, the administrator of FWC's manatee management program, told WUSF. She explained that 'some manatees might experience adverse impacts because they're not able to find those sources of warm water.'
While boating collisions are the top man-made threat to manatees, and are responsible for about half of manatee deaths, they are also affected by pollution and the impact of harmful algae blooms that result in a loss of seagrass and can also be potentially fatal. While these blooms are increasingly due to rising temperatures in ocean waters, they are also caused by nutrient pollution from improperly treated sewage and fertilizers.
In 2021, there was a significant die-off of hundreds of manatees after they starved to death due to a lack of seagrass. They can normally live for between 50 and 60 years.
Storms are also an issue for the threatened friends, and nonprofit Save the Manatees notes that as climate change increases the severity of hurricanes and other storms, manatees may be affected by ecosystem changes. More rainfall may also result in more algae blooms.
State waters are home to more than 8,000 manatees. While deaths have dropped, records show a spike in dead calves over the past year.
In recent years, environmental groups have pushed to get manatees back on the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that they would remain classified as threatened.
'We always look into the future, and there are significant threats to manatees statewide,' FWC manatee veterinarian Martine de Wit told The Associated Press. 'It's looking better now, but you cannot sit back and watch it unfold, because we know it needs management and conservation efforts to protect them.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
28-04-2025
- The Independent
Injured seals get care and sanctuary at a new center in the Netherlands
Gliding gracefully through the waters at his new home, Witje pauses briefly to peer through a large window at the curious and admiring visitors. The 4-month-old gray seal is a lucky survivor able to swim in one of nine new tanks at the World Heritage Center, or WEC, a recently opened seal rescue facility in Lauwersoog, in the north of the Netherlands. He was brought in after being orphaned and was suffering from a swollen flipper and a damaged eye. 'On a yearly basis, we roughly treat about 200 seals,' Sander van Dijk, the curator of the center, told The Associated Press. In 2024, researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands counted around 24,000 seals across the Wadden Sea. Most are pups who get separated from their mother, known as howlers for their plaintive wailing. Others are injured by floating debris or are struck by passing vessels. 'If we look at our own data over the past 15 years, we just see every year more seals that somehow get entangled in waste in the sea, mostly fishing nets,' Van Dijk said. The WEC, which officially opened to the public Saturday, replaces the Pieterburen Seal Center, a rescue facility set up in 1971 to treat injured seals found in and around the nearby Wadden Sea, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Witje's tank is an upgrade from his previous quarters. He gets to swim in water directly from the sea, rather than tap water, in order to maintain a habitat as close as possible to the seals' natural environment. 'They are adapted to living in seawater. It's good for their fur. But also seawater, through its salt, has some properties that makes wounds heal faster,' Van Dijk said. The WEC can treat around 70 seals at a time and has 12 intensive-care units for animals with serious injuries who are able to recover in special enclosures which offer a calm environment. They are prevented from swimming in order to rest and the space is cleaned frequently to prevent infections from waste. The new building, which cost over 40 million euros ($45 million), with financing provided by local and regional governments as well as charitable organizations, tells more than just the story of the seas. It's an educational space which teaches visitors about the Wadden Sea, the largest continuous system of intertidal flats in the world, extending along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. The new facility is significantly closer to the sea than the previous location. The tanks for the 10 seals currently residing at WEC look out over the water. Caregivers at the center are optimistic that Witje will soon recover enough to be released back into the waves.
NBC News
14-04-2025
- NBC News
Doctors remove pig kidney from an Alabama woman after a record 130 days
An Alabama woman who lived with a pig kidney for a record 130 days had the organ removed after her body began rejecting it and is back on dialysis, doctors announced Friday — a disappointment in the ongoing quest for animal-to-human transplants. Towana Looney is recovering well from the April 4 removal surgery at NYU Langone Health and has returned home to Gadsden, Alabama. In a statement, she thanked her doctors for 'the opportunity to be part of this incredible research.' 'Though the outcome is not what anyone wanted, I know a lot was learned from my 130 days with a pig kidney — and that this can help and inspire many others in their journey to overcoming kidney disease,' Looney added. Scientists are genetically altering pigs so their organs are more humanlike to address a severe shortage of transplantable human organs. More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant list, most who need a kidney, and thousands die waiting. Before Looney's transplant only four other Americans had received experimental xenotransplants of gene-edited pig organs — two hearts and two kidneys that lasted no longer than two months. Those recipients, who were severely ill before the surgery, died. Now researchers are attempting these transplants in slightly less sick patients, like Looney. A New Hampshire man who received a pig kidney in January is faring well and a rigorous study of pig kidney transplants is set to begin this summer. Chinese researchers also recently announced a successful kidney xenotransplant. Looney had been on dialysis since 2016 and didn't qualify for a regular transplant — her body was abnormally primed to reject a human kidney. So she sought out a pig kidney and it functioned well — she called herself 'superwoman' and lived longer than anyone with a gene-edited pig organ before, from her Nov. 25 transplant until early April when her body began rejecting it. NYU xenotransplant pioneer Dr. Robert Montgomery, Looney's surgeon, said what triggered that rejection is being investigated. But he said Looney and her doctors agreed it would be less risky to remove the pig kidney than to try saving it with higher, riskier doses of anti-rejection drugs. 'We did the safe thing,' Montgomery told The Associated Press. 'She's no worse off than she was before (the xenotransplant) and she would tell you she's better off because she had this 4½ month break from dialysis.' Shortly before the rejection began, Looney had suffered an infection related to her prior time on dialysis and her immune-suppressing anti-rejection drugs were slightly lowered, Montgomery said. At the same time, her immune system was reactivating after the transplant. Those factors may have combined to damage the new kidney, he said. Rejection is a common threat after transplants of human organs, too, and sometimes cost patients their new organ. Doctors face a balancing act in tamping down patients' immune systems just enough to preserve the new organ while allowing them to fight infection. It's an even bigger challenge with xenotransplantation. While these pig organs have been altered to help prevent immediate rejection, patients still require immune-suppressing drugs. Which drugs are best to prevent different, later forms of rejection isn't clear, said Dr. Tatsuo Kawai of Massachusetts General Hospital, another xenotransplant pioneer. Different research groups are using different combinations, he said. 'When we have more experience, we'll know what kind of immunosuppression is really necessary for xenotransplant,' Kawai said Montgomery said Looney's experience offers valuable lessons for the upcoming clinical trial.
The Independent
14-04-2025
- The Independent
NCAA woman of the year included in those killed in upstate New York plane crash
Tributes have been paid to those killed when a private plane crashed in upstate New York on Saturday. Those onboard included a close-knit family of physicians and distinguished student athletes, bound for a trip to the Catskills to mark a 25th birthday. The twin-engine aircraft, a Mitsubishi MU-2B, went down shortly after noon Saturday in a muddy field in Copake, New York, near the Massachusetts line, killing all six people aboard, according to authorities. The victims included Karenna Groff, a former MIT soccer player recently named the NCAA Woman of the Year; her father, a neuroscientist, Dr. Michael Groff; her mother, Dr. Joy Saini, a urogynecologist and Karenna Groff's boyfriend, James Santoro, another recent MIT graduate, according to James' father, John Santoro. Karenna Groff's brother and his girlfriend were also believed to be aboard, Santoro said. 'They were a wonderful family,' Santoro told The Associated Press. 'The world lost a lot of very good people who were going to do a lot of good for the world if they had the opportunity. We're all personally devastated.' Santoro said his son first met Groff as a freshman studying at MIT. Groff, who grew up in Weston, Massachusetts, was an All-American soccer player studying biomedical engineering. Santoro, a math major from New Jersey, played lacrosse for the school. During the COVID -19 pandemic, Groff co-founded openPPE, helping to create a new design of masks for essential workers. In 2023, she received the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year award for her on- and off-field accomplishments. 'Really, this recognition is a testament to my MIT women's soccer family and all of the guidance, support, and friendship they have provided for me over the years,' she said in an interview at the time. After graduating, Santoro and Groff moved to Manhattan, where Groff enrolled in medical school at New York University and Santoro worked as an investment associate for Silver Point, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, Connecticut. On Saturday morning, they traveled to an airport in White Plains, a suburb of New York City, where they boarded Michael Groff's private plane, according to John Santoro. They were set to land at the Columbia County Airport, but crashed roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the south. 'It's in the middle of a field and it's pretty muddy, so accessibility is difficult," Columbia County Undersheriff Jacqueline Salvatore said at a news conference Saturday. The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation and is expected to provide an update Sunday evening. Funeral arrangements were underway, Santoro said. 'The 25 years we had with James were the best years of our lives,' he added, 'and the joy and love he brought us will be enough to last a lifetime.'
