Starving Manatees Get Salad and a Warm Bath

Manatees, a favorite of divers and snorkelers in eastern Florida, are starving because the seagrass on which they feed is being wiped out by algae blooms triggered by pollution from agricultural and urban sources.

While last year the manatee population was estimated as high as 7500, 1101 manatees died, nearly twice as many in 2020. Just last month, another 90 died.

Injured manatees captured for rehabilitation are fed romaine lettuce, so Florida Fish and Wildlife has been providing romaine to the starving manatees in the Indian River Lagoon. And they are taking to it.

But the manatees also face a new threat: the unusually frigid cold that has engulfed Florida. So, in late January, Florida Power & Light Cape Canaveral Clean Energy Center began releasing heated water into the lagoon to prevent as many manatees as possible from dying from the cold. And it's helping.

It's still a pilot program and the public is reminded it remains illegal to feed manatees on their own.