Expanding habitat protections for Florida manatees by almost a million acres

In response to a lawsuit settlement with environmental organizations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to expand the critical habitat designation for Florida manatees by over 930,000 acres to a total of 1,904,191 acres. The species was listed as endangered in 1973 and critical habitat was designated for it in 1977. That included places where large concentrations of manatees were known to gather. But that habitat designation was never updated to reflect our growing knowledge of the species or its range.

What kills manatees

Since then we’ve learned much more about where these gentle giants live, breed and travel. We also know more about the threats they face. Watercraft collisions, harmful algal blooms fueled by polluted runoff water, habitat loss, coastal development and climate change all pose deadly challenges to these “gentle giants”. Harmful algal blooms are responsible for the unusual mortality event in 2020 -2021 killing nearly 1000, when the bloom blocked sunlight from reaching the seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon, leaving manatees to starve. This year, Florida has lost 462 so far, with over 130 still born babies.  

What protections come with a critical habitat designation

Critical habitat designation affects how federal agencies operate, requiring them to get clearance from USFWS for any actions they fund, authorize or do in that area. It prohibits federal agencies from harming or destroying manatee habitat in designated areas. However those regulations do not extend to private landowners. 

In 2008, several environmental groups petitioned the USFWS to update the critical habitat zones. Although the agency agreed that revisions were warranted, it failed to act on it, and in 2022 a complaint was filed and litigation was settled with a deadline of releasing an updated designation this month. Meanwhile the USFWS is wrapping up a 12-month investigation into another petition filed last year to upgrade the manatee’s status from threatened to endangered.

Manatees will still need our help for years to come

This proposed expanded habitat designation is just one tool to help create healthy manatee populations. They also need stronger protections from polluted runoff water and reckless boating. Pollution and human activity cause more deaths than anything else. We need state leaders to take a strong stand for manatees and require agriculture and commercial processing facilities to dump less pollution into our waterways. We need boating zones enforced, updated wastewater infrastructure and better education for watercraft drivers.

Still, this is a really good step forward. Protecting habitat that manatees rely on from some threats is better than nothing–and this expanded map highlights where else Floridians might need to take more action to.

USFWS is taking public comment on the new proposal to expand critical habitat designation. You can support the proposal here.