Manatees Tired of Florida Cold Control Power Plant Discharge

In ordinary Florida, depressed manatees resort to roaming the hot discharges of the state’s power plants.

according to Associated Press according to the report, manatees are congregating around the Florida Power & Light Company plant in Riviera Beach, where eight years ago it opened a manatee-focused attraction at Manatee Lagoon. Thus, manatees find some relief during the cold season in the Sunshine State.

Manatees grow to about 10 feet long (3 meters) and weigh between 800 and 1,200 pounds (363 kilograms to 544 kilograms). They live off the coast of Florida, usually in warm waters.

But a polar vortex Most of the United States was smothered last week, and its cooler-than-average temperatures grazed Florida, making the manatees’ normally warm home uncomfortably cool. So the sea cows went to the discharge of warm and, most importantly, clean water from the power plant.

“Manatees are such a special species in our waters in Florida because they’re a sentinel species, which means they’re an indicator of any water problems we might have or any environmental problems we might have,” Shanker, education manager at Rachel Manatee Lagoon, told the AP. said. “They are the first animals to start responding to any change in their environment.”

Over the past few years, Florida’s marine animals have suffered mass starvation. Algal blooms have caused a devastating loss of native seagrass, the species’ favorite food. Endangered manatees, listed as endangered by 2017, have suffered across the state, and in 2021 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported a record 1,100 manatee deaths.

The situation has reached such an extent that in 2022 the state applied feed the animals heads of romaine lettuce. Security teams next year announced his intentions Suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, alleging the agency’s failure to protect manatees.

“Manatees come to Manatee Lagoon for this warm water, but we don’t have a large seagrass population on our property,” Shanker told the AP. “So they’ll come here to Manatee Lagoon to warm up, and then when they start to get hungry, they’ll travel to find beds of seagrass, and they’ll go feed until they’re full and cold, and they’ll come back to our warm water to warm up.” uses but otherwise doesn’t change it, in other words it’s just warm ocean water.

The amount of seagrass on the Atlantic coast recovered after the die-off, and the manatee population increased in parallel; Last year’s total death toll (565 deaths) was “well below the five-year average (739)” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The population is still at risk, and so is Florida natural disasters are no stranger can affect the habitat of animals. But in recent numbers, manatees are on the rise, and that’s something to celebrate.