Florida Manatees Denied Endangered Species Protections Despite ‘Ongoing Die-Off’

According to a new proposal put forth by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Florida manatee, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, will remain listed as a threatened species and will be submitted separately for protections from another subspecies, the Antillean manatee. The Antillean manatee has been proposed to be listed as an endangered species.

The proposal determined that although Florida manatees face threats from boat strikes, algal blooms, loss of their food source (seagrasses) and loss of warm-water refuge areas, the subspecies still does not meet the criteria to relist Florida manatees as endangered. 

According to a survey by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida manatee population was between 8,350 and 11,730 manatees as of 2021–2022. The Antillean manatee, which has been proposed for an endangered listing, has fewer than 7,000 individuals remaining in the wild.

Florida manatees were formerly considered endangered until they were delisted and labeled threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2017. 

In 2022, experts piloted a feeding program to save Florida manatees amid a cold snap following the death of 1,101 manatees in 2021. Another 800 Florida manatees died in 2022, 555 in 2023 and 565 in 2024.

In September 2024, USFWS proposed expanding habitat protections for both Florida and Antillean manatees to reduce the threat of pollution to both vulnerable subspecies, which remains under an extended public comment period due to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

“It’s great news that Puerto Rico’s Antillean manatees finally won the endangered status they need to get on the road to recovery, but I’m disappointed the Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t give Florida manatees the same protection,” said Ragan Whitlock, a Florida-based attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The agency’s denial completely failed to account for the ongoing die-off that is weakening the manatees’ chance at long-term survival. Thousands of manatees have starved to death in the last few years, and that should have been accounted for.”

USFWS stated that it made its latest proposal to maintain the threatened status of Florida manatees while uplisting Antillian manatees as endangered based on the estimate that the Florida manatee’s likelihood of extinction in the next 150 years was lower than 1%.

“For almost 60 years, the Service has worked closely with conservation partners to save Florida and Antillean manatees from extinction,” Mike Oetker, Southeast regional director for USFWS, said in a statement. “The best available science always drives our decision-making, and we are committed to ensuring the protection and recovery of both subspecies of the West Indian manatee.”  

However, environmentalists have argued that the Florida manatee should be relisted as an endangered species.

“They should never have been downlisted, and so this was the time to fix that error,” Pat Rose, executive director of the Save the Manatee Club, told Inside Climate News. “You add the pollution levels, the harmful algae blooms, the loss of seagrass and the climate change issues together. I don’t see how they could hold to what their decision was back in 2017, that according to the Endangered Species Act they’re supposed to have determined with the best scientific information that the risks and threats to manatees are under control. That’s just not accurate.”

The proposal includes a public comment period, and USFWS will accept comments until March 17, including during a virtual public hearing on Feb. 26 starting at 5 p.m. EST (registration required).